I Remember Heaven

On the surface it may seem that Warhol and Hodges are polar opposites. Warhol is popularly portrayed as the ultimate cynic who “played” the art world for fame and fortune. By contrast, Hodges’s work can seem almost too likeable, openly tender and emotionally charged. I Remember Heaven: Jim Hodges and Andy Warhol reconsiders these characterizations of both artists through a series of carefully choreographed installations that juxtapose their works.

I Remember Heaven aims to evoke the side of Warhol that loved beauty and found it everywhere, in the bodies of beautiful boys and the silvery surfaces of the Factory’s space-age décor; who made art that embodied empathy and emotion; and who exposed himself in the self-portraits he made throughout his life. At the same time, the show seeks to amplify interpretations of Jim Hodges’s work beyond that of personal expressions of longing and loss, and explore his embrace of cheap means of adornment as well as the sexy, visceral quality of his work.

This exhibition creates a dialogue between the two artists, showing many shared motifs and materials—flowers, camouflage patterns, silvery surfaces, references to death. However, these resemblances are only part of the picture. On a deeper level this cross-generational study looks at the artists’ works within a continuum of art production that finds history in everyday artifacts and uses aesthetic representation as a means to understand visibility/invisibility, sexuality, selfhood, love, and death. I Remember Heaven aims to create a context in which Warhol’s work may be read retrospectively through the work of Hodges, and Hodges’s through the work of Warhol.

I Remember Heaven: Jim Hodges and Andy Warhol is organized by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and curated by Susan Cahan, guest curator.

Catalog Accompanying the exhibition will be a fully-illustrated catalog. Essays by Susan Cahan and José Esteban Munoz will be included. It will be distributed internationally by D.A.P., New York.

I Remember Heaven
Jim Hodges and Andy Warhol
Kurator: Susan Cahan