This just in from the University of Maine at Presque Isle:

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery is adding 153 original Andy Warhol photographs to its permanent collection, thanks to a major gift from the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program.

Reed Art Gallery Director Sandra Huck said that university officials signed a contract on March 19 to receive the black and white photographs and Polaroid images, valued at more than $100,000. The Warhol Foundation is donating a total of 28,543 original Warhol photographs – valued in excess of $28 million – to 183 college and university art museums across the U.S. This unprecedented gift is being made through the legacy program in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The foundation oversees the legacy program.

“That this small campus is able to participate in this program and is a recipient of this gift is nothing short of remarkable,” Huck said. “I couldn’t be happier.”

The aim of the Photographic Legacy Program is to provide greater access to Warhol’s artwork and process, and to enable a wide range of people from communities across the country to view and study this body of Warhol’s work, according to foundation officials. The program offers institutions that do not have the means to acquire works by Warhol the opportunity to bring a significant number of photographs into their permanent collections.

For the Reed Art Gallery, some of those photographs include images of Carly Simon, Wayne Gretzky, and Victor Hugo. Fittingly, the gift includes a black and white print titled “Owl” – an owl serves as the University’s mascot.

“What’s really significant about these images is that they are the tangible documentation of the American art scene from the 1970’s to the 1980’s through Andy Warhol’s eyes,” Huck explained. “These images are important in and of themselves, and because of the larger body of work they represent.”

The Reed Gallery expects to receive the photographs by the end of April. Huck said officials hope to get some of them framed and available for public viewing in the coming months.

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