“ON REPEAT”: An exhibition featuring the Andy Warhol’s early durational films and later serial photographs will be on view at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers in New Brunswick February 11 through July 31.
“Andy Warhol: On Repeat,” on view at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers from February 11 to July 31, brings together the artist’s early durational films and later serial photographs to examine repetition and duration as central forces in his art. Presenting nearly 70 photographs from the Zimmerli’s collection, many on view for the first time, and a suite of films on loan from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, “On Repeat” offers a rare look at how Warhol used time, stillness and seriality to chart the shifting terrain of identity.
While Warhol’s pop imagery is widely known, “On Repeat” reveals a deeper, more searching artist at work. The exhibition presents iconic films of well-known Warhol “Superstars,” including Edie Sedgwick, alongside lesser-exhibited examples from his “Screen Tests,” the nearly 500 durational film portraits the artist created during the mid-1960s. They highlight figures from Warhol’s world, including avant-garde actors Rufus Collins and Kyoko Kishida, queer performer Mario Montez and Donyale Luna — the first Black model to appear on the covers of both Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, and the subject of a recent HBO documentary — only now receiving long-overdue attention.
“We’re thrilled to present this fresh perspective on one of the most influential artists of the 20th century,” said Maura Reilly, director of the Zimmerli Art Museum. “The exhibition reflects our museum’s commitment to original scholarship, and it underscores our role as a place where familiar histories are reconsidered and reimagined for new generations.”
Within the galleries, films such as Outer and Inner Space (1966), one of the artist’s most formally and conceptually ambitious projects, are projected as wide as 16 feet to create immersive environments. Polaroids are presented in vertical towers that evoke photobooth strips, and multiple photographs of the same individual or object reveal Warhol’s obsession with repetition and extended looking as not only a personal preoccupation but also a distinctly American commentary on visibility, performance and the limits of seeing. Visitors will also be able to capture their own screen tests in an in-gallery interactive experience.
“Warhol understood that cameras don’t just record people, they transform them,” said Jeremiah William McCarthy, the museum’s chief curator and curator of the exhibition. “By filming a static sitter for three minutes or photographing someone repeatedly, Warhol preserved individuals either blooming or disappearing under the pressure of being seen. It remains a very relevant insight for our image-obsessed culture.”
“Andy Warhol: On Repeat” is organized by Jeremiah William McCarthy, chief curator and curator of American Art.
The exhibition is complemented by free public programs, kicking off with the opening reception on February 12. Additional spring events include Polaroid workshops on March 11 and April 16, as well as the Art Together family workshop on April 12. More information and details are available at zimmerli.rutgers.edu/events.
Admission to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers is free. The museum is located at 71 Hamilton Street (at George Street) on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
The museum is open Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 12 to 5 p.m. For more information, visit zimmerli.rutgers.edu.