Andy Warhol

Acquired by the present owner directly from the artist in 1967

This painting is in excellent condition. Please refer to the following condition report prepared by Terrence Mahon. This work is framed in black painted wood strip frame.
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Self–portraiture, as an artistic genre, is a traditionally evocative subject for critical study and review. However, when examining the work of Andy Warhol, the theme is even more arcane as he was the master at blurring the line between public and private identity both in his art and his life. He created a world where soup cans were as significant as celebrities and media over-saturation could turn anyone or any object into a star. He used recycled images to corrupt the notion of artistic subject matter – including portraiture - and presented an image that no longer clearly identified the sitter in a straightforward way. Instead, his portraits demonstrate Warhol's attitude to the human contradiction of public persona versus private identity.

Warhol began to examine the effects and possibilities of self-portraiture when he was just 20 years old while studying at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh (Robert Rosenblum, Andy Warhol: Self- Portraits, St. Gallen, 2004, p. 21). During his time there, he composed a series of self-portrait drawings that depicted himself in the act of picking his nose. Though this is a universal act, it is typically considered offensive in public and has certainly never been seen before in self-portraiture. It is in this instance that Warhol first explored the marvelous dichotomy that is inherent in portraiture: one where he captured both truth and intimacy, while also being shocking and enigmatic. Robert Rosenblum once said, "From the beginning, Warhol offered a contradictory balance between up-close intimacy and calculated artifice" (Ibid, 21).

Self -Portrait demonstrates Warhol's deliberate statement of equating himself with stardom in the same fashion as his iconic portraits of Jacqueline Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and Elizabeth Taylor. The first two series of Self-Portraits in 1963 and 1964 were in the same 20 x 16 inch format and were both based on photo-booth images, as used in other portraits at that time, such as the portrait of the New York collector Ethel Scull. With this 1966 series of Self-Portraits, which are acknowledged as the most well-known of his 1960s Self-Portraits, Warhol advanced several innovations. Similar to the 40 x 40 inch portraits of Jackie, Liz and Marilyn of 1964, Warhol now adopted a square format but in the more intimate scale of 22 by 22 inches. This resulted in the intentional cropping of his face, thus causing his head to "float" in a sea of bright shades and heavy shadowing. Most importantly, as with the 1962 Marilyn ``Flavors'', Warhol's self-portrait is an exercise in saturated, vibrant color. The photo-silkscreen was no longer based on a photo-booth strip and rendered a higher quality screen allowing for intense tonal contrasts. Largely abandoning the use of black silkscreen ink, Warhol now screened only in vivid hues of two, three or, as in this case, four bright colors. This deliberate use of shading and eccentric coloring is not atypical in art historical context: for instance, Pablo Picasso's Self – Portrait from 1901 encompasses similar dynamic color combinations and shadowing techniques forcing Picasso's face to glow, like that of Warhol's, in an eerie and hypnotic fashion.

The present work is an "uncanny combination of closeness and distance, of intimacy and indifference" (Ibid, 22). The image represents Warhol in a contemplative position; resting his head on his left hand, his fingers fan-like across his chin and mouth. The pose itself establishes a mysterious tone that brings the viewer into Warhol's psyche, while simultaneously rejecting any assumptions about him. Similarly, Jean Cocteau's self portrait drawing serves as an art historical foreshadowing to that of Warhol's. Cocteau depicted himself through merely an oval-shaped head and quizzical hand gesture, leaving the face completely void of any features. This suggests the curious dichotomy evident in self-portraiture, where the artist presented himself to the viewer for examination, while simultaneously insisting to remain elusive and impersonal. The proper right side of Warhol's face is cast in a shadow that prevents the viewer from looking him straight in the eyes. These visual elements combined with the hypnotic vibrancies of the color combinations create a dizzying perception of reality: one, which he reveled in.

For Warhol, this self-portrait epitomized him as an artist and individual; it is both startlingly personal and entirely detached, thus making it one of his most enigmatic and truly mesmerizing self-portraits.  Untitled (Self-Portrait) is the paramount archetype of Warhol's self-portraiture. The silkscreen image possesses the ability to engage the viewer with this iconic Pop hero while simultaneously revealing very little about him, thus redefining the art of portraiture forever. Warhol once said, "If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There is nothing behind it" (Exh. Cat., Milan, Triennale di Milano, The Andy Warhol Show, 2004-5,  p. 25).