Michigan State University's Broad Art Museum has opened a new exhibition titled "Who Is She? Andy Warhol and the Muse Reimagined," curated by two student curatorial research assistants, Morgan Braswell and Nat Swartz. The show features nearly 40 works from the museum's permanent collection, including Polaroid photographs taken by Warhol at his Factory studio, three larger silkscreen works, and pieces by artists such as Helmut Newton, Audrey Flack, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, and Lillian Bassman. The exhibition runs through July 2 in the Stanley and Selma Hollander Gallery.
The exhibition matters because it offers a fresh, student-led perspective on Warhol's legacy, reframing the concept of the muse by highlighting the women who posed for his Polaroids and contributed to his success. It also fulfills the museum's obligation to feature Warhol works from its collection at least once every ten years, per the Andy Warhol Foundation, while providing a deeper, generationally relevant look at Warhol's artistic process beyond his commercial brand.