9 / Portraits
| Artist / Origin |
Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987)
Region: North America
|
|---|---|
| Date |
1974
Period: 1900 CE - 2010 CE
|
| Material | Screenprint |
| Credit | © Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy of Diane von Furstenberg and the Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts |
expert perspective
| David Patrick ColumbiaEditor, newyorksocialdiary.com |
expert perspective
David Patrick Columbia
Editor, newyorksocialdiary.com
“backWarhol lived in the era of the photograph. So Warhol did these photographic portraits that were silk-screened and turned into “paintings.” And it was a business that he was in, and he had a lot of different people who would go out and meet Mr. and Mrs. Got Rocks and say, ‘You know, you really ought to have a portrait done by Andy. He’d love to paint you.’ And they’d say, ‘Oh really,’ and so they think, ‘Well that’s good because it’s very groovy to be painted by Andy Warhol because he’s a very hot commodity.’ That’s actually what always happened in portraits a long time ago. That’s when they hired Gainsborough, they hired Constable, when they hired Van Dyck to do the portrait—it was because he was a hot commodity for portraits. It wasn’t just the way they look, ‘cause they knew they were going to look great because he wasn’t going to make them look terrible. Because they wouldn’t do that. But also, they worship at the feet of a lot of these artists. And so they want to be connected to it. Andy Warhol said, ‘The business of art is business.’ And actually, it was always so. Because these guys had to eat.”