Filmmaker and Baltimore native John Waters has bequeathed approximately 375 prints, paintings and photographs to the Baltimore Museum of Art, which will in turn name two bathrooms for him, officials said Wednesday.
A news release from the museum said the gift follows Waters’ close collaboration with the museum, which includes its major retrospective, John Waters: Indecent Exposure, which opened at the BMA in fall 2018.
Museum officials said the works come from artists such as Andy Warhol, Diane Arbus, Roy Lichtenstein and Waters himself.
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“Renaming the bathrooms was my idea right from the beginning,” he told The Baltimore Sun. “They thought I was kidding and I said, ‘No, I’m serious.' It’s in the spirit of the artwork I collect, which has a sense of humor and is confrontational and minimalist and which makes people crazy.”
In recognition of Waters’ gift, the museum at his request is designating The John Waters Restrooms in the East Lobby and The John Waters Rotunda in the European art galleries.
In September, the museum received $5 million from Nancy Dorman and Stanley Mazaroff to establish a center dedicated to the presentation, study, and preservation of its prints, drawings, and photographs collection.
