A Look Into Brady Art Gallery’s ‘Luminaries’

Highlights from the new show include Warhol prints, Botero painting and Corcoran portrait.

February 25, 2015

The Luther W. Brady Art Gallery brought original Andy Warhol works to GW in its new show, "Luminaries: Portraits from the GW Collection."

By Julyssa Lopez

In the program of his 1968 show at the Moderna Museet, Andy Warhol scribbled out a quote that would become his most indelible dictum: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”

Now, the George Washington University’s Luther W. Brady Art Gallery is showcasing images that capture subjects at their most iconic, immortalizing those 15 minutes Mr. Warhol predicted decades ago. The new exhibition, “Luminaries: Portraits from the GW Permanent Collection,” opened to a packed gallery of art aficionados on Feb. 11 and will be on view until April 24.

“Luminaries” includes pieces created by the sapient Mr. Warhol himself. Six screen prints gifted to the gallery by the Warhol Foundation in 2014 are the centerpiece of the show—they range from two images of Lakota chief Sitting Bull that contrast each other like photographic negatives to a portrait of communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong colored in electric green. The Brady Art Gallery added Polaroids and monochromatic gelatin silver prints donated to the university from the Warhol Foundation in 2008, along with a GW-owned portrait of Mick Jagger that had been hanging in Vice Provost and Dean of Students Peter Konwerski’s office.

The exhibition was an opportunity to highlight other portraits from the university’s collection. Brady Art Gallery Director Lenore Miller chose to feature a piece by Colombian painter Fernando Botero and paintings from Washington-based artist Clark V. Fox, among others. Some of the works pay homage to Mr. Warhol, such as a painting of Elizabeth Taylor by Robert Reitzfeld, emblazoned with a kaleidoscope of colors.

“Andy Warhol’s portraits were icons, Ms. Miller said. “We looked for other portraits from GW’s permanent collection that would embody that same spirit.”

Below are some more of the brilliant works that shine in “Luminaries.”

Andy Warhol, “Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom”

Based on a photograph taken at Windsor Castle in 1975, 'Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom' was included in Mr. Warhol's 'Reigning Queens' series. The screen print was part of the Warhol Foundation's gift to the Brady Gallery.

Henry Ulke's portrait of William Wilson Corcoran captures the arts patron who also served as president of the Board of the Columbian College during the 19th century. His connection to GW remains stronger than ever following a historic arts agreement that brought the Corcoran School to the university last summer.

Corcoran alumnus Clark V. Fox has been called the 'godfather of modern underground art.' His image of our nation's founding father references Warhol-esque pop art with its abstract background and flat red color.

Howard Finster, “George Washington at 23”

An American artist and Baptist minister, Howard Finster's work embodied unconventional 'outsider art.' This portrait of George Washington was purchased from the Tartt Gallery in Washington, D.C., and added to the university's collection in 1987.

Joe Shannon is a Washington artist whose figurative style brings to mind Picasso's classical drawing era. Of his work, the artist said, 'My work is the opposite of what Barbara Rose calls 'high art.' Greenberg implies that a painting is no more than it is, a painting should be literal, and concretely sensational. Emotional, my painting is always more than it is, ideally, it should interfere with the onlooker's life''