Day Trip: Warhol Work on Display in Montclair

America has an innate fascination with the automobile and with reinvention. One represents freedom from a fixed place, where the other suggests freedom from one’s self, or one’s born persona.

At the intersection of the two stood one of the primary figures of the pop art movement: Andy Warhol.

He began as a magazine illustrator, then still carrying his full name “Warhola,” and had he stayed in that mode it is likely we would not regard him as we do today—as an innovator, a free-thinker, and in some ways, a huckster. Campbell’s Soup could make you buy its product, but it was Warhol that made it an artistic statement.

On view at Montclair Art Museum until June 19, Warhol's many sketches, illustrations and silk-screen experiments, all grouped around the theme of the automobile, finds one icon still commenting upon another icon.

Another artworld firebrand also has residency until mid-July, albeit in a somewhat tamer format than usually known for. A series of photographs of flowers, shot by controversial photographer Robert Mappelthorpe and presented by the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, shows a much different side of this sometimes scandalous artist’s vision.

It doesn’t stop there. To celebrate the life and work of renowned artist and printmaker Will Barnett, on the eve of his 100th birthday, a series of his more recent works also receive top-billed treatment at the Montclair Art Museum this year.

Of course, writing about art is, to some degree, a fruitless effort. You have to see it for yourself. That's why we've selected the Montclair Art Museum for this installment of Day Tripper, a weekly look at destinations that are out of town, but in reach, and worth the trip. We'll tell you about it, but if you follow our tip and check it out, you'll get so much more of an experience.

DAY TRIPPER DIGEST

Estimated Travel Time: 27 minutes

Why it’s Worth the Trip:  A wide range of cultural activities, a
variety of places to eat, a vibrant town center, and natural beauty
all come together in Montclair, and nothing binds that cultural
diversity together as well as the Montclair Art Museum.

How to Get There from Here: Take Garden State Parkway North, Exit at 148/Bloomfield Avenue, Follow Bloomfield Avenue, turn right on South Mountain Avenue, the art museum at 3 South Mountain Ave. is on the left.

You’ll Probably Get Hungry:  Montclair has many places to stop and eat
at, with some being more familiar than others. While you’re there why
not try something different? Blu (554 Bloomfield Ave.), Dai Kichi
Japanese Restaurant (608 Valley Road), Next Door (556 Bloomfield
Ave.),Raymond's(28 Church St., in the heart of the town center), Thai
Chef (664 Bloomfield Ave.) and Toast (700 Bloomfield Ave., one-half
block from the Museum) all promise to make your daytrip a unique
experience.

While You’re in the Area:  Montclair has several parks and gardens
within reach, such as the Van Vleck House and Gardens, Presby Memorial
Gardens, and Kip’s Castle Park, the home built over a three-year
period in the early 1900s by Frederic Ellsworth Kip and his wife,
Charlotte Bishop Williams Kip.

Clearview Cinemas has two locations in Montclair, the Bellevue Theater
located in Upper Montclair and the Clearview Clairidge Cinema, located
on Bloomfield Avenue. While the Bellevue Cinema mostly shows
main-stream Hollywood films, the Clairidge Cinema shows different
types of movies from documentaries to small scale indy films.

Live theaters include The Wellmont Theatre, Montclair State
University's Kasser Theater, MSU's theater in Life Hall, and the
Studio Playhouse. On Bloomfield Avenue there is a public stage used
for concerts and other events.

Museum marketing director Michael Gillespie laid out the numbers of
people required to make the Museum tick. It's “50 full-time and
part-time employees, including a director, curators, marketing and
publicity personnel, education program administrators, operations
personnel, development staff, finance staff. [We have] over 50
part-time teachers in the art school, about 350 volunteers, and a
40-person Board of Trustees,” Gillespie said.

Aside from the temporary exhibitions, Gillespie also mentioned the
works that are part-and-parcel of the museum:

"The museum includes a gallery dedicated to the work of George Inness
(1825–1894), regarded by his contemporaries as America’s foremost
landscape painter," he said. "During his last years, Inness was
inspired by the natural beauty of Montclair, where he resided from
1885 until his death. The Inness Gallery is the only gallery of it
kind in the world devoted solely to the work of Inness.

“The museum’s collection of traditional and contemporary Native
American art and artifacts represent the cultural achievements in
weaving, pottery, wood carving, jewelry, and textiles of indigenous
Americans from seven major regions.

“The collection has grown to over 12,000 works. The American
collection comprises paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and
sculpture dating from the 18th century to the present, and features
excellent works by Benjamin West, Asher B. Durand, George Inness, John
Singer Sargent, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, and Roy
Lichtenstein, as well as younger and emerging artists such as Louise
Lawler, Chakaia Booker, Whitfield Lovell, and Willie Cole. Besides its
traditional holdings of American Indian art, the Museum also displays
the work of contemporary Native Americans, such as Tony Abeyta, Dan
Namingha, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, and Marie Watt.”

When asked what potential visitors should know before they come to the
Museum, Gillespie said, “Parking can be tight in Montclair. But
visitors can start at the Museum, where parking is plentiful and free,
and be within walking distance of the center of town.”

For more on goings-on in Montclair, see Montclair Patch.