La Salle University Art Museum Receives
a Collection of Andy Warhol Photographs

La Salle University Art Museum has added 150 photographs by legendary 20th century artist Andy Warhol to its collection, thanks to a gift from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. 

The Foundation, in celebration of its 20th anniversary, has donated 28,543 original Warhol photographs to 183 college and university art museums across the United States. The entire collection is valued at more than $28 million.  

According to Joel Wachs, President of the Andy Warhol Foundation, the donation of the photos is meant to provide greater access to Warhol’s artwork and process, and to enable a wide range of people from across the country to view and study this important, yet relatively unknown, body of Warhol’s work. 

The La Salle Art Museum’s collection of 150 photographs consists of original Polaroid and silver gelatin prints which were taken by Warhol between 1971 and 1985. The photos feature headshots of celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone, Carolina Herrera, and Cheryl Tiegs as well as some cityscapes, landscapes, and other figural compositions. The photos were carefully selected by Jenny Moore, curator of the Foundation’s Photographic Legacy Program.  

“A wealth of information about Warhol’s process and his interactions with his sitters is revealed in these images,” notes Moore. “Through his rigorous – though almost unconscious – consistency in shooting, the true idiosyncrasies of his subjects were revealed. Often, he would shoot a person or event with both cameras, cropping one in Polaroid color as a ‘photograph’ and snapping the other in black and white as a ‘picture.’”  

Although the La Salle Art Museum houses a large collection of more than 4,000 objects from the Renaissance to present, the Warhol photographs fill a void in the Museum’s collection. “The Art Museum owns very little Pop art or photography,” said Madeleine Viljoen, Ph.D., Director and Chief Curator of the La Salle Art Museum, “We are very grateful to the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program for donating this important collection of photographs to us.” 

For more information about the La Salle University Art Museum, visit, www.lasalle.edu/museum 

About the La Salle University Art Museum: 

The La Salle University Art Museum began in 1965 as a study collection for the University’s art history majors; it opened in its current location, on the lower level of Olney Hall, in 1976.  The collection has grown as a result of acquisitions and donations from friends and collectors. The Museum houses more than 4,000 objects and is currently the only university in the Philadelphia area to own a permanent display of paintings, drawings, and sculptures from the Renaissance to the present.