Gallery to receive 150 Warhol photographs
Augustana one of few institutions in region selected by Warhol Foundation to receive works

By BryAnn Becker

Mirror Variety Editor
December 7, 2007

Augustana’s permanent art collection will soon house 150 original Polaroid photographs and gelatin silver prints by Andy Warhol.

“The donation will be great to kick off the future of the gallery,” art professor and Eide/Dalrymple Gallery director Lindsay Twa said.

Twa applied for the grant through the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program last spring. The grant is in honor of the Warhol Foundation’s 20th anniversary.

Augustana is one of the only institutions in the region to be selected for the art, which is expected to arrive in late January and is estimated in value at $153,000.

“It’s a credit to [Augustana’s permanent art] collection that we received the gift from the Warhol Foundation, and it will serve to broaden our collection in a different style and medium of art,” said Janet Brown, chair of performing and visual arts.

The Warhol pieces will be featured in a permanent collection exhibit in the Eide/Dalrymple Gallery next fall.

Brown expressed enthusiasm over the gift.

“It’s always exciting to have pieces by an internationally known artist,” she said.

While famous for Pop art such as Campbell’s Soup Can paintings and the Marilyn Monroe portrait, Warhol also took numerous photographs with a Polaroid camera.

“Everyone knows Andy Warhol for Andy Warhols, and they are less aware of his films and photography,” Twa said.

Twa said she does not know what specific Warhol photographs Augustana will receive. The Warhol Foundation will select and document the distribution specifically to the institution.

“Everyone’s holding their breath about what Andys we will receive,” Twa said. “The response in the art community is overwhelming. This is definitely raising the profile of arts in Sioux Falls and at Augustana.”

The art department also learned last week of budget approval from President Rob Oliver for storage and preservation units for the the gallery’s permanent storage area, located in the back of the new gallery.

“It was a perfect storm moment,” she said.

The storage system will be finished in the next couple of months.

Twa said the system will aid in the care of the art and will make it easier for anyone visiting the collection to view and study the art.

The department plans to sell a collection of original Chinese prints to fund the storage system.

“This will alternatively pay for the storage system, but it is important to know that [if the art doesn’t sell immediately], the college is still willing to pay for it,” Brown said.

The storage area will be temperature and humidity controlled. Once the storage system units arrive, the rest of the permanent art collection will be transferred from the basement of the old gallery to the storage area.

Twa believes the new storage system in the gallery significantly contributed to Augustana being selected to receive the photographs.

She outlined the gallery’s mission, the arts at Augustana and the ability of Augustana to care for the objects in the application.

Twa said that the art will prove beneficial to the Augustana community as well as to Sioux Falls residents.

“It will give a representative range [of Warhols] to teach from,” she said. “Beyond that, the sky’s the limit.”