COPENHAGEN.- MultiplesInc, the acclaimed fine art gallery located outside Copenhagen, Denmark is proud to announce the release of a limited edition of rare and previously unpublished photographs of Andy Warhol by Los Angeles based fine-art photographer, Marshall Swerman. Each black and white image is from an edition of ten, signed and embossed by the artist.
The photographs of Andy Warhol and his entourage of "Superstars" were taken when Photographer Marshall Swerman was given the rare opportunity to spend time with Andy at The Factory, his studio in Union Square, New York City, in the mid-1960's. Swerman's Warhol portraits are included in the Warhol Museum collection in Pittsburgh and were highlighted in the PBS American Masters documentary of the artist by Ric Burns in 2006. The owner of MultiplesInc, Peter Hvidbert discovered Swerman's work and found that it had never been published nor been available to the market for purchase. He engaged the photographer to produce a limited edition of exclusive Warhol prints for his gallery.
Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, Marshall Swerman is a self-taught photographer who began taking photographs in 1966 with his first camera, a Pentax Spotmatic, when living on the Lower East Side of New York City. Swerman studied filmmaking and videography at the School of Visual Arts and The New York School of Photography. His reportage of the culture from the late 60's through the mid-70's has been published worldwide. Swerman was among the first photographers to document the proliferating phenomenon of graffiti in New York City. His coverage of graffiti as an art form was showcased in a cover story in the prestigious Print magazine and in numerous books on the graffiti scene. His photography has been celebrated in solo exhibits in New York City, Martha's Vineyard, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. His work can be found in collections throughout the world.
Swerman abandoned his photographic art for a few decades while operating his successful advertising boutique and graphics arts services business in Los Angeles, catering to the film, television, radio and recording industries. Now resurrecting his studio, Swerman is revisiting his photography and archives, working towards completing many of the photographic projects he put on the shelf and new projects. One of these is the Dead Cars and Other Body Parts, a photographic study of stripped and abandoned cars. Another project is his Factory and Friends Series that includes rare photographs of Andy Warhol and his entourage of 'Superstars. Swerman's Warhol portraits are included in the Warhol Museum collection in Pittsburgh and were highlighted in the Ric Burns PBS American Masters documentary of the artist in 2006. Additionally, Andy Warhol shot a 2 hour portion of his rarely seen 24 hour movie titled 4-Star in Swerman's apartment on the lower east side of Manhattan, with Swerman included among the cast in the film.
Four of Swerman's other photographic projects include his completing a book chronicling his photographic work of the heyday of the hippie/peacenik/psychedelic/be-in/love-in era and Woodstock of the 60's as he witnessed and experience it, and a series of digitally altered photographs he calls 'digital impressionism' of Italy and other locales. Another project is titled Heavenly Objects and Celestial Objects that celebrates the female body and our universe as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. His fourth project is a series titled Great Movie Moments on TV that includes iconic images spontaneously shot of television screens broadcasting classic movies.