The art of people and places

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Nov 15, 2009

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Welcome back, Andy.

Last time you occupied this prized spot in the LSU Museum of Art, you showed up in the guise of Marilyn.

Yes, it was the crème de la crème of your Marilyn Monroe silkscreens, her hair golden against a hot pink background. You simply called it “Marilyn Monroe,” and you created it in 1967.

And it came to this museum in March 2008 as part of the exhibit An Adventure in the Arts: Works from the Permanent Collection of Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, N.Y.

She greeted visitors walking into the main gallery from this prestigious spot. And now here you’re back in the spotlight on center stage.

Not your name as portrayed by Marilyn, but you, Andy Warhol, watching visitors as they pass, flanked by your shadow, which allows you to be anybody you wish.

And embellished by the magic of diamond dust.

“It really plays into this theme of people and places, which is comfortable, yet challenges us,” Natalie Mault said. “And I think that’s incredible, because if you think about it, most art deals with people and places. But this show questions who we are as individuals and communities, and what our relationship is with our changing environment.”

Which is what Warhol had in mind when he created his 1981 silkscreen “The Shadow.” It’s one of nine pieces in his Myths series and serves as the centerpiece of the museum of art’s exhibit Of People and Places: Contemporary Works from the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection.

The show opens today and runs through Feb. 14, 2010. At this moment, though, Mault and her crew are just now hanging the works on newly painted gallery walls.

Mault is the museum’s assistant curator and is in charge of the exhibit’s installation.

The show features 42 works from the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection’s some 30,000 pieces. The pieces date from 1963 to the present and represent 19 well-established artists.

“The JPMorgan Chase Collection is one of the most well-known corporate art collections in the world,” Mault said. “There are several traveling exhibits from this collection, and this is one that we’ve been trying to bring to our museum since we were at our location on the LSU campus.”