Andy Warhol

Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zürich
José Mugrabi, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Tokyo, Isetan Museum and travelling, Andy Warhol 1982-1987, 1991
Kyongju, Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art; Seoul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Warhol & Basquiat, 1991, p. 30, illustrated in colour
Athens, National Gallery, Andy Warhol, 1993
Lausanne, Foundation de l'Hermitage, Andy Warhol, 1995, no. 139, illustrated in colour
Milan, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Andy Warhol, 1995-96, p. 135, np. 98, illustrated in colour
Warsaw, National Museum; Krakow, National Museum, Andy Warhol, 1998, p. 217, illustrated in colour
Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Andy Warhol, 2000
Chiba, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Andy Warhol from the Collection of Mugrabi, 2000, p. 152, illustrated in colour
Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany, Altes Rathaus, Andy Warhol: Me, Myself, and I, 2006, n.p., no. 57, illustrated in colour

Over beautifully lyrical sweeps of reflective gold acrylic Andy Warhol's iconic silkscreen has brought into being the mesmerising Two Gold Mona Lisas, multiplying twice the definitive celebrity of Art History. In much the same way as he had portrayed female celebrities of his era, notably Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Elizabeth Taylor, Warhol turns Mona Lisa into a star. These female subjects are united by a blinding public persona that hides a deep private sorrow: Warhol's portrayal of them thus uniting his twin obsessions with celebrity and mortality. Just as Marilyn, Jackie and Liz led glamorous public lives that were tainted by personal tragedy, Mona Lisa's infamous smile seemingly conceals a sadness hidden in her mystifying expression. As the colour that signifies glamour, riches and luxury more than any other, the metallic glow of gold gives the portrait a timeless, other-worldly quality, echoing the most potent golden portraits of Warhol's contemporary heroines.

When the Mona Lisa embarked on her first voyage outside Europe, to America on 14th December 1962, she could not travel by plane, but instead she travelled as the Queen would on a state visit, by ship. As Donald Sassoon describes: "She was taken to Le Havre, escorted by a motorcade and 'welcomed' by the captain of the liner S.S. France... she was then installed in a specially arranged first class compartment, in a purpose-built waterproof box that would float if the ship sank. In other words, she was safer than the passengers and crew - after all the world is full of sailors but there is only one Mona Lisa" (Donald Sassoon, Mona Lisa, The history of the world's most famous painting, London 2001, p. 244). Her arrival in America was a major media event, and the exhibition tour to Washington's National Gallery and New York's Metropolitan Museum was covered by wave upon wave of photographers, both amateur and professional, each hoping to capture the essence of her fame. The press devoted vast column inches in attempting to analyse her wondrous beauty and furthermore her celebrity as the world's most famous work of art. Her arrival to the United States was unveiled by John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, as a way of improving French-American relations and, indeed, many of the photographers juxtaposed the radiant smile of Jackie with the 'enigmatic' one of Mona Lisa. She was a media star in the truest sense of the word and by the end of her trip over 1.6 million people had seen her. Amongst them was one of America's hottest young artists, Andy Warhol.

The effect was quite immediate. That same year Warhol began a love affair with the Mona Lisa which would last intermittently for most of the rest of his life. His first painting using her image, Thirty are better than one, 1963 was his first serialisation of an art historical painting, the Mona Lisa remaining the only painting he would use in this way until the 1980s. Although he produced relatively few works on this subject during this period, he returned to her between 1978 and 1980, from when Two Gold Mona Lisas is perhaps the finest and most beautiful outcome.

Mona Lisa seems tailor-made for Warhol's adoration. Allegedly the portrait of a little known Florentine lady, 'Monna' Lisa Gherardini, painted by Leonardo circa 1503, it is her image which lives on in the public consciousness. The paintings fragile and precious nature ensures that it rarely, if ever, travels, her fame being spread solely through reproduction. It is the most photographed and reproduced work of art in the world and the fascination with the Mona Lisa 'brand' extends its legend through replicas and souvenirs as well as books and postcards. She has attained an eternal and immortal status which is somewhat removed from the humble origins of the original painting. Films have been made about her and songs have been written about her, many of which develop her persona into that of a living being.

Of course, many artists have also attempted to adopt the Mona Lisa image. However, it is the Mona Lisas of Warhol and Marcel Duchamp which are most renowned. While Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. could be regarded, in 1919, as an attempt to subvert high culture, by the 1960s the Mona Lisa was no longer high culture, but a popular cultural icon. When Warhol came to this subject, he was not reacting to the painting as such, more to its fame and, by extension, the power of the image in general in our media saturated culture.

Shimmering with elegance, sophistication and beauty, Two Gold Mona Lisas is quite literally one of the jewels in Warhol's crown. The 'Retrospective' series, first started in the late 1970s found Warhol revisiting many of his most famous images. He returned to his established icons such as Marilyn, Campbell's Soup Cans, Flowers, and, as here, Mona Lisa with a maturity born of experience and a technique honed to perfection. By comparison with his earlier Mona Lisas he had now refined his silkscreen process to the point where he had complete artistic facility with the medium and could fully manipulate it either to a point of disappearance or, as in this case, to a detailed fullness and depth. We are treated to two immaculately cast screens of the Mona Lisa, yet the feel of each is very different to the other. On the right, the lighter image details most of the original aspects of the painting with the winding mountain road fading into the distance behind Mona Lisa's right shoulder and the hem of her dress is detailed to perfection as it hangs on her breasts. To the left the stunning detail of the face mirrors that of the right image, while the hand seemingly disappears in the thick gold layers below. This combined with the luscious, thickly applied impasto which implies vast 'expressive' sweeps of a fully loaded brush, symbolic of his 1970s works, gives Two Gold Mona Lisas a golden weight to add to its glorious visual gravitas.

Andy Warhol's meeting with the world's most famous work of Art in 1963 at such a vital point in his career was fated. Fascinated by contemporary society's obsession with celebrity and the reproduced image, as well as a keen student of Art History, he was finally confronting the real thing, the ultimate Art celebrity. A highly ambitious young man, he thoroughly believed in the longevity of art at a time when our digestion of images was increasing at a ferocious pace. He aspired to make great works of art which would live long into history and outlast him, in the same way that the Mona Lisa had outlasted Leonardo. The golden pinnacle of a seventeen year relationship with the image, Two Gold Mona Lisas stands alone as a masterful work of art, an icon of its time. More than that, it combines dazzling visual beauty with a deep conceptual intelligence whose relevance transcends time.