Andy Warhol

Gaëtana Endens, Brussels (acquired directly from the artist)
Jean Krebs, Brussels
Micheline Hendrickxs-Delattre, Brussels
Sale: Michel Campo Auction, Antwerp, 29 March 1994, Lot 307
Private Collection, Brussels (acquired at the above sale) 

This work is registered with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York, under number A113.072

Andy Warhol's dazzling Miguel Berrocal is a fabulously rich portrait of the Spanish sculptor Miguel Ortiz Berrocal who first visited Warhol's studio in 1981.  Hearing tales of the legendary Warhol across the Atlantic, Berrocal travelled to New York City in 1981 for his exhibition at the Arnold Katzen Gallery and on the same visit commissioned Warhol to execute a portrait, the first one in silver.  In 1983 on another trip, the present work was created, this time against a lavish and radiating gold background accentuated with diamond dust, another version of which is in The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Miguel Berrocal, with its lustrous gold background, immortalises Berrocal's image as an icon for our contemplation and reverence.  Since Byzantine and Mediaeval times, gold has been the reserve of depictions of saints, holy figures and rulers.  In similar fashion, Berrocal is presented to the viewer as an object to be admired. Portrayed as a strong yet sophisticated individual, his dark brooding eyes gaze intently out confronting the viewer with a faint smile playing on his lips.  His strong, dark Spanish features are translated well through the silkscreen with the black of his eyebrows and slick dark hair augmented by the strong contrast of the silkscreen process.  Elegantly positioned, leaning on one arm and smoking a cigar, Berrocal is transformed from artist to icon, an angle Warhol often sought in creating his portraits.  Dressed in a tuxedo, he is given the aura of a Hollywood movie star by Warhol who presents him as a celebrity in a fashion true to his iconic portraiture. The glitz and glamour of celebrity is accentuated by the shimmering surface created by the diamond dust on the gold and inky black screen.

While Warhol's portraits of the 1960s were made from photo-booth headshots, in the 1970s and 1980s he started to use a Polaroid camera to make his source images which he used as the basis for his compositions.  Translated through the silkscreen process from photograph to portrait, Warhol, like an alchemist, creates a timeless symbol of his subject.