TULSA, OKLA.- Philbrook Museum of Art opens In Living Color: Andy Warhol and Contemporary Printmaking from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation on Sunday, October 18 following a well-received year-long tour to several museums across the U.S. This exhibition, organized and traveled by the Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha, Nebr.), includes over 110 works by Warhol and 17 other artists working since 1945, including Keith Haring, John Baldessari, Edward Ruscha, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, and Richard Diebenkorn. Reflecting a range of aesthetic concerns and conceptual underpinnings, In Living Color highlights artists who invest in the power of their color palettes. Dispatching a seemingly endless array of colors, Andy Warhol depicted the world with the volume turned up. His example reverberates throughout contemporary printmaking.

Philbrook Curatorial staff selected this traveling presentation for their 2015-2017 Special Exhibition Series to highlight a period of contemporary art history not readily available to Tulsans. “This exhibition allows Philbrook visitors to examine the ways these artists use color as a tool to challenge how audiences understand otherwise ubiquitous and iconic imagery of popular culture,” remarked Dr. Sienna Brown, Philbrook’s Nancy E. Meinig Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “Furthermore, In Living Color, which is drawn from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, involves this thoughtful collector whose passion to share these vibrant and riveting works is visible through his personal participation.” Mr. Schnitzer will present two lectures to Philbrook Members during their preview events and has underwritten several related programs. In Living Color: Andy Warhol and Contemporary Printmaking from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation will remain on view through January 17, 2016 before traveling to Jacksonville, Fla.

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) once famously quipped, “I like boring things.” Indulging this inclination throughout his career, he depicted the mundane, the everyday, the obvious, and the overused. Encompassing three decades of Warhol’s work, In Living Color examines how the artist’s “boring things” came to life through his exuberant use of color. The leading figure of American Pop Art, a movement that took shape in the 1950s, Warhol focused his attention on the social and political turbulence and unprecedented consumerism that emerged as the United States began to recover from World War II. Drawing inspiration from the rapidly changing world around him, Warhol pursued an approach to making art that was more inclusive and aware of the day-to-day conditions of contemporary life. Seeking to downplay the role of originality in art, Warhol and his fellow Pop artists adopted mechanical means of generating images, such as screenprinting, a technique that allowed for the production of multiple identical editions. In Living Color features some of Warhol’s most iconic screenprints, including his portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong, the splashy camouflage series, and his controversial Electric Chair portfolio.

Drawn exclusively from Portland, Ore.-based collector Jordan Schnitzer’s extensive holdings, which include over 9,000 contemporary prints, the exhibition is divided into five sections — Experimentation, Emotion, Experience, Subversion, and Attitude. Each section places a significant body of work by Warhol in conversation with prints made by fellow artists who use color as a tool to shape how viewers read and respond to imagery. The artists featured in In Living Color may not all respond directly to Warhol, yet his example reverberates throughout post-war printmaking. Just as Warhol’s vivid sunset images are thought to have been inspired by the views from his beach house on Long Island, Richard Diebenkorn’s seminal Ocean Park series reflects the intense sunshine and splashy color of the Southern California neighborhood where he kept his studio for nearly twenty years. Helen Frankenthaler was similarly motivated by her surroundings. While she often resisted identifying specific subjects in her work, Frankenthaler once explained: “I think of my pictures as explosive landscapes, worlds, and distances held on a flat surface.” Her three woodcuts in the exhibition subtly recall the golden hues of sunrise, the expanse of an insect’s milky wings, and the earthy shades of an evergreen forest.

With his signature mix of bravado and practiced deadpan, Warhol dug below the surface of contemporary culture to uncover the absurdities, prejudices, fallacies, and contemporary culture. More than thirty years after his death, Warhol’s work continues to shape our perceptions of common images and objects with humor, wit, and the occasional barb.