Andy Warhol

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York
Gallery Sho Contemporary Art, Tokyo

Exh. Cat., Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Andy Warhol, 1968, n.p., illustrated twice (another example)
Rainer Crone, Andy Warhol, New York, 1970, no. 606, p. 310 and p. 273, illustrated (another example)
Exh. Cat., Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Andy Warhol, 1981, cat. no. 6, p. 131, illustrated (another example)
David Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, pl. no. 144, p. 151, illustrated (another example)
Exh. Cat., Tübingen, Kunthalle (and traveling), Sammlungsblocke: Stiftung Froelich, 1996, cat. no. 285, p. 217, illustrated (another example)
Ronald Feldman and Jörg Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: a Catalogue Raisonne 1962-1987, 3rd edition, 1997, cat. no. I.1, p. 42, illustration of two examples from the series of five unique works
Exh. Cat., Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol Museum, Andy Warhol: Photography, 1999, p. 60, illustrated (another example)
Exh. Cat., Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Andy Warhol Retrospective, 2001-2002, cat. no. 105, p. 156, illustrated (another example)
Exh. Cat., London, Tate Modern, Andy Warhol Retrospective, 2002, cat. no. 105, p. 156, illustrated (another example)
Exh. Cat., Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Andy Warhol Retrospective, 2002, cat. no. 105, p. 156, illustrated (another example)
George Frei and Neil Printz, Andy Warhol, Catalogue Raisonne, Volume 1, Paintings and Sculpture 1961-1963, New York, 2002, fig. no. 232, p. 354, illustrated (another example)
Ronald Feldman and Jörg Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: a Catalogue Raisonne 1962-1987, 4th edition, 2003, cat. no. I.1, p. 46, illustration of two examples from the series of five unique works 

Warhol’s life-long fascination with cinema and movie stars is one of the core elements of the artist’s persona and art, with endless permutations throughout his oeuvre. He mined the movies and the fan magazines for images that he manipulated into commentary on divergent subjects such as glamour, commercialism, death, media saturation, American culture, and the dichotomy between private vulnerabilities and public image. Cagney belongs to a group of images, including paintings of Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando, which dealt with an aggressive macho sensibility. Brando sits astride a motorcycle in leather cap and jacket, while Presley adopts the classic gunfighter pose with six-shooters drawn. Like these images, Cagney is more about a character or narrative rather than the actor, in contrast to the more fame-related portraits of Troy Donahue that were sourced from publicity stills. Cagney is an artfully chosen ``scene’’ of tension and impending action, with a shadowed gun aimed at Cagney’s gangster who stands brandishing a gun in each hand. With such cinematic overtones, perhaps influenced by his simultaneous early endeavors as a filmmaker in 1963, Warhol used this image to great effect in the five unique works on paper he created, including the present work, as well as the one silkscreened canvas in 1963 (Collection Marx, Berlin).

Beginning in 1962, Warhol created the artistic enterprise for which he is most famous – the use of silkscreen technique to create fine art. The medium appealed to Warhol visually for its tonal contrasts and grainy cinematic effects, but more importantly he appreciated the flexibility of the medium. Screens could be reused to create multiple images on one canvas, as in the painting of Cagney (1963, Collection Marx, Berlin), or to reuse the same image singly within a series of individual works as in the Flowers. Yet within the virtues of repetition, Warhol also focused on the nuances of chance and the differences from one use of a screen to another. In his paintings, colors vary and their placement on the ground can vary, as in the blonde hair of the Marilyn paintings or the lips of the Liz paintings. Yet in the unique works on paper such as Cagney and The Kiss (Bela Lugosi), the essence of individuality in the silkscreen process is at its most basic – the variables in ink and the action of the screening itself.  As a screen is repeatably used, the image varies according to ink saturation. As Warhol commented, ``With silkscreening, you pick a photograph, blow it up, transfer it in glue onto silk, and then roll ink across so that the ink goes through the silk but not through the glue. That way you get the same image, slightly different each time. It was all so simple – quick and chancy. I was thrilled with it.’’ (Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett, POPism: the Warhol ‘60s, New York, 1980, p. 22). In comparisons between the five Cagney works on paper a wide spectrum is evident; one image has deep tonal contrasts and clear image definition while another has two large white streaks horizontally bisecting the image where the ink did not pass through the screen. The present example of Cagney has the deep shadows and sharp figure of the movie still with areas of soft hazy washes in the background.

The image is taken from Public Enemy, the 1931 movie that was Cagney’s signature role as the ``tough guy’’. It is his quintessential rendition of the gangster genre and set the standard for mob and crime films even decades later, as it followed the rise and fall of a criminal and portrayed the implications of his actions on his character and on his family. It is one of the most memorable films from the early era of sound pictures and the most successful of Warner Brothers' stable of gangster films that also included Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart as stars.

Alongside the paintings of Brando from The Wild One and gunfighter Presley, Cagney shares a thematic link to the Death and Disaster paintings and Warhol’s abiding preoccupation with the sense of death within life. ``The gun and motorcycle respectively added overtones of aggression and violence to the macho portraits of Brando and Presley, and related them to the artist’s painting of Cagney, who brandishes a revolver in each hand, All three of these male stars, who exemplify different periods of Hollywood history, sharply contrast with the comparatively bland faces of Troy Donahue and Warren Beatty.’’ (David Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, p. 148)