Thomas W. Sokolowski, a brilliant, gregarious and outspoken art historian, wore vividly colored eyeglasses, the perfect accessory for a visionary activist and museum director.
For 14 years, Mr. Sokolowski animated The Andy Warhol Museum with potent exhibitions, Friday programs at half-price admission, fashion shows and live performances that drew large, diverse audiences of all ages.
Mr. Sokolowski, 70, suffered a seizure that caused major brain damage and died Wednesday at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J. In October 2017, he became director of the Jane Vorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.
“He was the most creative, irreverent and loyal boss and friend I’ve ever had,” said Colleen Russell Criste, deputy director and chief philanthropy officer for the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Mr. Sokolowski said that what made him happiest was “when people would say 'Only The Warhol could do that' or 'The Warhol should take that on.’ Others wouldn't do so because of age, or lack of funding, or they didn't have a pulpit or they were too frightened — ‘Ooh, what would happen?’” he said.
When the Chicago native arrived in Pittsburgh in 1996, he had credentials as an art historian and veteran activist, being among four founders of Visual AIDS. The New York nonprofit formed over dinner in his living room, he said. In 1988, Visual AIDS began using red ribbons to raise awareness about HIV and help people living with it. In 1989, Visual AIDS started an annual event, Day Without Art, to mourn those who had died, educate people and raise money for research to find a cure.
As the Warhol’s paterfamilias of a tightly-knit staff, Mr. Sokolowski transformed the museum into an open forum and vibrant center of culture. He raised the museum’s international reputation by launching an ambitious program of Warhol exhibitions that toured the world, generating necessary revenue.
Articulate and candid, Mr. Sokolowski enjoyed the limelight. In 1994, he was an arts correspondent for F/X Television.
In a 1997 interview, television host Charlie Rose challenged Mr. Sokolowski’s claim that Warhol was as influential during the second half of the 20th century as Pablo Picasso was during its first half. He did not back down. On camera, Mr. Sokolowski maintained the demeanor of a gentlemanly scholar. Privately, he was the dean of dish, recounting stories laced with gossip and witty commentary about the art world and Pittsburgh, a city where he challenged cultural leaders to take risks and that he grew to love.
Adding performing arts to the museum’s mix of programs drew visitors of all ages. The Warhol and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust commissioned Dean & Britta in 2008 to compose songs for 13 film screen portraits Warhol made in the early 1960s. The result, “13 Most Beautiful Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests,” toured 75 venues, including Lincoln Center and the Sydney Opera House. It marked the first time the museum released Warhol’s films on DVD.
For its Off the Wall series, the museum teamed with PS 122 in New York City to import performance artists to Pittsburgh. A Sound Series that began in 2004 showcased Vampire Weekend in 2008; soon afterward, the band performed in large stadiums.
During Mr. Sokolowski’s tenure from 1996 to 2010, memorable Warhol exhibitions included a 1998 show, “In Your Face” with portraits and photographs by various artists. Far harder to view was “Without Sanctuary,” which showed photographs and postcard images of lynched African Americans.
“That was really edgy for Pittsburgh,” said Cynthia Kernick, a retired intellectual property lawyer who befriended Mr. Sokolowski while representing the museum.
“He worked very closely with community groups from the African American community and got input as to what they might do to present it in a way so that people would not shy away from seeing it,” Ms. Kernick said.
When “Without Sanctuary” opened, “they had a gospel choir on the first floor,” Ms. Kernick said.
Mr. Sokolowski also exhibited disturbing images taken of prisoners in 2004 at Abu Ghraib, a notorious prison in Iraq.
“He was alert to just how important these images were and how visual images operate politically in public discourse. They were not being shown in the media and not being discussed in public,” said Terry Smith, the Andrew W. Mellon professor of contemporary art and theory at the University of Pittsburgh.
In 2007, the Warhol showed the art of Ron Mueck, an Australian doll maker, and “Personal Jesus: The Religious Works of Keith Haring and Andy Warhol.” In 2009 came “Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand,” which opened while The New York Times was suing Fairey over his use of an image of President Barack Obama.
Anthony D’Offay, a London gallery dealer, recalled that after the Mueck sculptures were installed, Mr. Sokolowski talked for 45 minutes to his staff about the artist.
“He made an extraordinary speech about classical antiquity and sculpture in Greece and sculpture in Rome.... You could hear a pin drop.... We were all speechless,” Mr. D’Offay said.
Mr. Sokolowski understood the value of collaboration. After the Pittsburgh Public Theater moved Downtown in 1999, leaving behind a shuttered North Side performance space, he teamed with Jane Werner, executive director of The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, to reopen the venue. With Mark Fatla from the Northside Leadership Conference, the trio raised $2.5 million and rechristened it the New Hazlett Theater, a space for performing arts groups.
“Who would have thought that Tom Sokolowski would take the Children’s Museum seriously? He was just so open to new ideas,” Ms. Werner said, adding that he was “such a good person to brainstorm with and laugh with and think big thoughts.”
After he left the museum in 2010, Mr. Sokolowski performed to a large crowd while wearing a white-powdered wig during a benefit performance at the New Hazlett Theater.
Mr. Sokolowski earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago. He received a master’s degree and did doctoral studies at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, concentrating on late 17th- and early 18th-century Italian art.
As director of the Grey Art Gallery in New York City from 1983 to 1996, he made many contacts. In 1989, he organized the show “Success Is a Job in New York ... The Early Art and Business of Andy Warhol,'' a survey seen in Paris, London, Turin, Philadelphia, Newport Beach, Calif., and Pittsburgh.
“That was a revolutionary exhibit for its time. Nobody had looked at early Warhol. That exhibition launched a revisionist view of Andy Warhol’s work,” said art historian Edward J. Sullivan, deputy director of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.
Colleagues revered Mr. Sokolowski for his compassion and generosity. John Smith, director of the Rhode Island School of Design’s art museum, was an archivist at the Warhol when Mr. Sokolowski gave him opportunities.
“Tom allowed me to do exhibitions, to curate shows. The support that he gave me ultimately prepared me to leave and run things myself,” Mr. Smith said.
Including newcomers was a hallmark of his leadership, said Casey Lupetin, a summer intern at the Warhol museum in 2006. A resident of Oslo, Norway, she manages sales and marketing for Peder Lund, a contemporary art gallery.
“I remember Tom as being so kind and approachable, even to a lowly summer intern like me. He would regularly invite me and other interns to discuss ideas for potential projects with the museum, and I remember his office as being a place of convivial team building surrounded by an endless number of books and interesting works of art,” Ms. Lupetin wrote in an email.
“Tom had a way of making you feel like your opinions mattered and that you should encourage people to speak freely and creatively, no matter how low on the totem pole you might be. He always seemed like a champion for the little guy, which translated into his intelligent approach to many artists from diverse backgrounds,” Ms. Lupetin added.
A memorial service is planned at a later date at Rutgers University. Memorial contributions may be made to the Tom Sokolowski Intern Fund, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003.
Marylynne Pitz: mpitz@post-gazette.com.
First Published: May 7, 2020, 12:58 p.m.
Updated: May 7, 2020, 12:58 p.m.
