From soup cans to nuts

“The Prints of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again,” through Dec. 23, Bowdoin

College Museum of Art, Brunswick, 725-3275.

“Buying is much more American than thinking, and I’m as American as they come.” – Andy Warhol

Everything – and everyone – can be bought and sold, and no one knew this better than Andy Warhol, who turned the icons of modern consumer culture into commentaries on themselves.

He knew a crop of orange hair and a purple mole couldn’t dim the power of Marilyn Monroe’s sleepy-eyed sexuality. He elevated a soup can into high art, tongue firmly in cheek. He chose images that were graphically striking on their own, and then tattooed them in Day-Glo colors or sprinkled them with shimmery “diamond dust.” Actually, it was ground glass, but you know what they say about all that glitters …

“From A to B and Back Again” starts innocently enough, with a sheet of “S & H Green Stamps” at the gallery entrance and a pair of psychedelic cows, but it’s a false calm. To the right, the drama of John F. Kennedy’s assassination unfolds in 11 frames. “Flash – November 22, 1963” hammers the images of the day into the viewer like snippets from a music video. Flowery stencils obscure a newspaper page printed in silver reading “PRESIDENT SHOT DEAD.” Warhol superimposes the presidential seal over a smiling TV still of Kennedy. It’s like reading a tabloid – you don’t want to look, but you can’t resist.

The lower gallery feels like Disney World on acid – a carousel of too-bright colors and glitter and fancy shoes and famous faces all swirling around, larger than life. Mickey Mouse is there, too, – in double, a little out of focus – on a pastel background jazzed up with “diamond dust.”

One of the first things you see when you walk down the stairs is a wall full of Warhol’s famous Campbell’s soup can prints, stacked like a giant supermarket display. Bright, shimmery shoes line another wall like a scene from Imelda Marcos’ closet. In 10 poses, Mick Jagger laughs and sneers, all pouty and sexy through a veil of pink and gold ink. Nearby, Jane Fonda looks like a glamour queen, with lacquered red lips and an enormous helmet of hair.

Nestled among Warhol’s familiar pop images are a few surprises, such as his melty-sherbet “Sunset” and the abstract “Shadows.” The made-up drag queens in “Ladies and Gentlemen” look more like linocuts than silk screens.

The most telling pair of images doesn’t really stand out. Amid the fluorescent “Camouflage” series and the portraits of Mao and Nixon, “$” isn’t particularly striking. But the dollar signs, which nearly jump off their black and red backgrounds, are what this show is all about – flash and cash.

Black-and-white photographs by Edwin Martin, ongoing, Lumiere Photographic Studio, 58 Main St., Bangor, 941-9800.

If you’ve walked down Main Street in downtown Bangor lately, you may have noticed that the former Evenings Out building has a new occupant. Now, in place of bridal gowns and prom dresses, intriguing black-and-white photographs fill the windows.

Photographer Edwin Martin and his wife, Shannon, recently bought the building and are in the process of renovating it, so it’s best to call before you visit, but it’s worth the extra effort.

Before Martin moved to Bangor, he taught photojournalism and visual communications at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. For more than 20 years, he has documented quiet, candid moments – from a couple embracing while reading the paper to a lone figure walking among misty trees.

Martin’s photographs don’t teem with activity, but they glow with life. In a single frame, he captures the soul of a place or a slice of a person’s personality. A sliver of tangled brush between a river and a canal beckons in the nighttime fog – at once foreboding and alluring. A vacant state park in New Jersey overlooks the Manhattan skyline on an overcast day, the twin towers reaching into the clouds, now chilling in its emptiness. Martin brings the viewer into a secluded Paris garden, where an older man reads in silence.

In the bustle of downtown, the studio is a peaceful diversion. If you stop in, be sure to check out Martin’s two photography books, “Hope for a Good Season,” documenting a North Carolina fishing community, and “Mud Show: American Tent Circus Life,” which captures life under the big top. Even in the whirlwind of a circus, Martin’s images are timeless and contemplative.

Art notes

. Anthony Anderson and Aline Fourier have created a valuable resource for art lovers. The “Maine Gallery & Studio Guide” gives a statewide tour of galleries and museums. For information or a free copy, visit www.mainegalleryguide.com. The site is packed with artist profiles and interesting shows.

. Printmaker Danuta Muszynska’s fall-themed prints are on view through the end of October at Caf? Nouveau in Bangor. The show, “Dry Autumn Martini with E. E. or Putting Things Back Where They Belong,” features juxtapositions of martini glasses and fruit, playing with perspective and overlapping images. She also has a selection of warm, inviting leaf prints. For information, call 942-3336.

. “Kunie Sugiura: Dark Matters/Light Affairs” opens Nov. 2 at the University of Maine Museum of Art. Known for his cameraless photographs, the New York artist places objects on photographic paper and exposes them to light. The result is a picture of a shadow – strikingly simple, layered and evocative. A gallery talk and opening reception will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5. For information, call 581-3255 or visit www.umaine.edu/artmuseum.