Andy Warhol

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (LC #155)
Mr. and Mrs. Gene R. Summers, Chicago
Sotheby's, New York, May 9, 1996, lot 220
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

Mario Amaya, Pop as Art, London, 1965, p. 102, illustrated
Rainer Crone, Andy Warhol, New York, 1970, cat. no. 105, illustrated
Rainer Crone, Das Bildnerische Werk Andy Warhols, Berlin, 1976, cat. no. 114
Georg Frei and Neil Printz, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculptures 1964-1969, Volume 2A, New York, 2004, cat. no. 1092, p. 158, illustrated in color

This work is in good condition overall. There is evidence of wear and handling to the edges, resulting in hairline craquelure and small associated spots of paint loss to the extreme edges and corners. The upper left corner of the canvas is slightly warped from a misshapen stretcher. There are two spot accretions on the figure’s neck which fluoresce brightly under Ultraviolet light inspection, but there does not appear to be evidence of retouching. Framed. *Please note the auction begins at 9:30 am on November 14th.*
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"The woman whose feelings were reproduced in all the media to such an extent that no better historical document on the exhibitionism of American emotional values is conceivable." (Rainer Crone, Andy Warhol, New York 1970, p. 29)

Andy Warhol's Jackie dates from the height of the artist's most celebrated period and combines the groundbreaking themes of both his Death and Disaster canon and his contemporaneous fascination with celebrity culture. This image shows a grief-stricken, veiled Jackie Kennedy mourning at the funeral of her late husband, the tragically assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Jackie Kennedy's grieving countenance will always re-tell an epic tragedy and through the remote objectivity of the silkscreen, Warhol's Jackie documents the tragic visage of the United States' First Lady. With the most brilliant artistic innovation, this work encapsulates the allure of unlimited celebrity, critiques the manipulative power and replicating effects of mass-media, and is a profound response to one of the most tragic moments of twentieth-century American history.

The source image that provided the template for this canvas belonged to a sequence of eight images of the Presidential wife culled by Warhol from the flood of popular press in the immediate aftermath of the Kennedy assassination on 22^nd November 1963. Having pursued a successful career in magazine illustration and advertising during the 1950s, Warhol's brilliant invention here lies in editing and cropping the perfect image to encapsulate the entire narrative of an open-top limousine journey and a sniper's bullet that devastated the emotional landscape of a nation. Jackie immediately and efficiently narrates America's sudden, violent loss and deep shock, that is as palpable and horrifying today as it was half a century ago. The assassination was followed two days later by JFK's burial in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. While a nation mourned the loss of a political hero, broadcasting agencies and news editors assembled their valedictory testimonials. As an entire population sank into the shared psychosis of bereavement, the media's carefully choreographed reaction precipitated the Jackie corpus: one of the most prodigious critiques of mass communication ever conceived.

Georg Frei and Neil Printz have assessed how Warhol brought Jackie "into close-up, making her the dramatic focus and emotional barometer of the Kennedy assassination, shifting the historical narrative into a series of affective moments or portraits that register the subject over time." (Georg Frei and Neil Printz, Eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2A, Paintings and Sculptures 1964-1969, London and New York 2004, p. 103) Confronted with the atomic conflation of celebrity and death, the artist anaesthetised this zeitgeist through the effects of replication and multiplication, so undermining the manipulative potentiality of mass media. This compelling work will always remain a seminal treatise on the emotional conditioning inherent to mass culture. Warhol was disturbed by the media's potential to manipulate, yet he simultaneously celebrated the power of the icon. Fame and its agents intoxicated him and he understood celebrity as integral to modern life. In keeping with his very best work, celebrity, tragedy and the spectre of death inhabit every pore of this compelling image.