Boston Spirit Jan | Feb 2020

CULTURE Visual Art STORY Loren King

What’s in Your Icebox?

Rhode Island School of Design commemorates major Warhol exhibit When Andy Warhol visited the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1969 to curate an exhibit, the prince of pop art was not well-received.

It was the era of student protests and Warhol, at least at that time, was considered by many students as more socialite than iconoclast or rebel.

They “looked at him as out of touch. He was a notorious, very prominent public figure as an artist,” says Dominic Molon, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art. There was resistance to the elitism

that students perceived Warhol and Danny Robbins, the museum’s director at the time, represented.

Artist, filmmaker, gay icon and superstar, Warhol was given free rein to curate a show from the museum’s entire collection, pulling objects from storage to exhibit whatever captured his imagination. The “Raid the Icebox” concept, which broke down the barriers between artist, curator and museum, was radical at the time, says Molon. The exhibit may have been novel, but

74 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Warhol’s time in Providence was fraught with problems.

“He made several visits here with an entourage but he left early,” says Molon.

Today, the “Raid the Icebox” concept is fairly common among art museums, and the relationship between artists and institutions has evolved dramatically to a more collaborative one. But RISD wanted to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of “Raid the Icebox I with Andy Warhol” at the RISD Museum. What better way than a sequel that showcases acclaimed contemporary artists and celebrates RISD’s collection?

“We are honoring that historical moment from 50 years ago and [asking] ‘what does it

now mean for an artist as curator to engage the collection or institution in some way?’”

Molon says.

“Raid the Icebox” pays homage to the 50th anniversary of Warhol’s show but it is very much of the zeitgeist.

RISD invited contemporary artists and designers Pablo Bronstein, Nicole Eisenman, Pablo Helguera, Beth Katleman, Simone Leigh, Sebastian Ruth, Paul Scott and the art magazine Triple Canopy to create new bodies of work or create a unique curatorial project using the museum’s collection, which includes more than 100,000 works spanning ancient times to the present. The exhibitions, with staggered openings through