Pop Art ennobled pop culture. This is its enduring legacy. No one could turn Campbell’s Soup Cans into icons of modern art like Andy Warhol. Much of Warhol’s work plays with the theme of the mass media’s mass production. With his infamous “Brillo Boxes,” Warhol starkly contrasted the singularity of the work of art with the disposability of product packaging. But it is for his portraits of cultural aristocracy that the artist is best known.
The Jewish Museum Milwaukee is pleased to present “Andy Warhol: Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century.” Instead of Marilyn and Mao, viewers will have the rare opportunity to see Warhol’s renderings of the Marx Brothers, Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, among others. The exhibition opens Sunday, Dec. 15, and will be on display until the end of March. For the admission price of $6 or less, visitors will enjoy not only the Warhol exhibit but also the museum’s materials on Judaism in Milwaukee.
“UWM Arts+Tech Night”
Kenilworth East Building
1925 E. Kenilworth Place
If “undecided” is the major of students who cannot choose, then UW-Milwaukee’s interdisciplinary Arts & Technology program is the choice of students who resolutely refuse to choose a major. The collaborative degree gives these creative minds the freedom to incorporate art and design, music, dance and film into their studies. On Wednesday, Dec. 18, from 6-9 p.m., the fruits of their interdisciplinary labors will be showcased. Interactive installations, electronic music and a mockumentary about a fabricated Icelandic pop star are on the docket.
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“Digital Mandala”
Racine Art Museum, Wustum Campus
2519 Northwestern Ave.
Chinese culture is teeming with symbols. In fact, some of its most common written characters are pictograms, i.e. depictions of the objects they signify. So it should come as no surprise that artist Peggy Thurston Farrell was inspired to create her symbol-laden art while travelling in China. Farrell repeats ancient and contemporary symbols throughout her collaged, silk-screened and water-colored works until they become saturated with fresh meanings. “Digital Mandala” was selected for inclusion in “Watercolor Wisconsin,” an exhibition of the state’s finest works in the medium. The show opens on Sunday, Dec. 15, with a reception and awards ceremony from 2-4 p.m. and is on display through April 26, 2014.
