John Waters' art collection to go on display and the Baltimore Museum of Art
BALTIMORE -- The John Waters Collection, featuring 90 works from the Baltimore artist's private collection, opens Sunday at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
The filmmaker, artist, and provocateur recently bequeathed upon his death his collection of nearly 375 works.
"It's an extraordinary gift. It's very generous," BMA Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Leila Grothe said. "They represent a type of contemporary art the BMA just doesn't really have. So, he's bringing us into a new type of contemporary art."
Waters says the museum sparked his creativity when he was a child.
"I hope that I can do the same thing for the next weird little kid that wants to take a picture that nobody likes," Waters said. "I would always just say (the collection is) delightful for all the wrong reasons."
The works are from three of Waters' homes—in New York City, San Francisco, and Baltimore. He calls the artworks his "roommates."
"It's a super generous gift he's sharing. It's a lifetime full of collecting," co-curator and artist Jack Pierson said.
The museum refers to the exhibition as an "articulation of American individualism . . . particularly as it relates to queer identity and freedom of expression."