By LOUISA CLEAVE
The trumpeted Warhol exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery lost at least $90,000 and attracted a poor audience, the gallery's board was told yesterday.
The Warhol Look, a retrospective of the American artist Andy Warhol, attracted fewer than half the expected 50,000 visitors.
Of the 21,582 people who did see the show, half rated it as excellent and 30 per cent said it was very good.
The $12 entry fee was the highest yet for an exhibition, but 84 per cent of patrons said they got value for money Gallery director Chris Saines said the $90,000 shortfall was likely to be even higher once final costs, including shipping and freight, were met.
The disappointing attendance comes on top of a gloomy year for the gallery. Its annual visitor numbers slumped by 100,000 people in the 1998-99 year and there were high hopes for Warhol.
Mr Saines said unprofitable exhibitions made it very difficult for the gallery and put pressure on other areas.
"But I feel confident we can manage our way through that. I think we have to take an optimistic view and look forward to future successes."
He said there were a number of reasons why the Warhol exhibition did not attract the expected number of visitors.
Major exhibitions are usually held during winter but Auckland had no choice but to take Warhol on the last leg of its Australasian tour, he said.
The board was told that on fine weekends during the exhibition's run, between August 28 and November 14, the public chose to visit Auckland's new drawcard, the Viaduct Basin.
Warhol was widely promoted in the media but the gallery lacked the funds to promote it on mainstream television.
"We weren't able to convert awareness into attendance," he said. "We believed Warhol was a name widely enough known to attract an Auckland audience [but] it attracted a limited audience who came in big numbers and the general audience came in limited numbers."
A lack of sufficient sponsorship dollars prevented the gallery advertising to a wider audience.
The next major exhibition at the gallery will be Masterworks, a show of European masterpieces, next July.
'Warhol Look' proves loser for art gallery
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