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Pittsburgh artists and others took to social media to grieve the death of Thomas W. Sokolowski, the visionary former director of the Andy Warhol Museum. As reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sokolowski died yesterday at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J. He was 70.
The news of his death has spawned a number of touching tributes, including Facebook posts by artist Vanessa German, Richard Parsakian, owner of the Eons Fashion Antique in Shadyside, and performance artist Phat Man Dee.
“RIP former @TheWarholMuseum director Tom Sokolowski. Tom was a monumental figure in the #Pittsburgh arts community for 14 years. He changed lives, ruffled feathers and helped make The Warhol a top arts destination in the world,” tweeted Sharon Eberson, online features editor, theater critic, and pop culture writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
A highly accomplished curator, arts advocate, and academic, whose work included organizing Warhol exhibitions, Sokolowski stepped into his role at the museum in 1996. In a Carnegie Magazine article published after his appointment, Sokolowski reflected on Warhol’s legacy and how his upbringing in working-class Pittsburgh informed his art, and expounded on his vision for the then-young museum’s future.
“Although we are a one-artist institution, our programming will transcend that,” said Sokolowski, adding, “Our museum is not just going to be a mausoleum. I am very concerned that it not be that.”
Sokolowski remained as the director until his resignation at the end of 2010.
Sokolowski was also remembered outside of Pittsburgh, including by Visual AIDS, a New York collective he helped found in 1988 as a way to highlight AIDS-related art.
On Twitter, Apollo Magazine editor Thomas Marks recalled meeting Sokolowski in 2019, calling him a “real character.” That description shines in interviews like the one by former Pittsburgh City Paper arts editor Bill O’Driscoll, who spoke with Sokolowski in 2010 before he officially stepped down. In it, O’Driscoll calls Sokolowski “an outspoken cultural gadfly” and “a reliably frank and funny voice against whatever’s kitschy or dull,” something the interviewee demonstrates when discussing subjects like the city’s public artworks, of which he said, “Well, they’re shitty here. There’s not been a good one since I’ve been here.”
Sokolowski stayed active in the Pittsburgh arts scene after leaving the Warhol and took on other gigs, such as co-hosting the CP Lynn Cullen Live show in 2014. At the time of his death, he was director of the Rutgers Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
This article appears in May 6-12, 2020.
