Andy Warhol

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner circa 1985

Andy Warhol’s fascination with iconic images and celebrity extended to his appropriation of famous paintings by the artists he most admired. Everyone knows that Warhol said he wanted to be a machine; fewer however recall him saying as he also did, that he wanted to be Henri Matisse, one of the 20th century’s most influential and successful artists. Woman in Blue (After Matisse) painted in 1985 is both a reverential tribute and metaphorical interpretation of one of Matisse’s greatest paintings, which gave Warhol the opportunity to explore the concepts of fame and artistic legacy through the language and forms of another artist.

The manipulation and projection of his own image lies at the heart of Warhol’s work, and just as he had adopted celebrities and brand names as signatures of his own persona, so his paintings after other artists were not only homages but also proclamations of his own greatness. During the 1980s, Warhol followed on from the series which referred to his own back catalogue, such as the Reversals and Retrospectives by adapting works by numerous popular and famous artists in his Art from Art series. Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and Matisse’s Blue Woman had all become celebrities in their own right, much as Warhol’s images of Marilyn. Here, Warhol was adding them to his own pantheon of celebrity. This series coincided with the honing of Warhol’s silkscreen printing technique to almost mechanical perfection, enabling him to reflect his great influences with the mastery which they deserved.