PURCHASE, NY.- Andy Warhol—one of the most influential American artists of the twentieth century—captured the likenesses of some of the most visionary and powerful political leaders of his time. Warhol’s portraits of American presidents, European royalty, Communist dictators, and other political figures reveal intriguing, and, until now, unexplored insights into his own celebrity status and political leanings.
Andy Warhol: Pop Politics, an exhibition organized by the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, will be on view at the
Neuberger Museum of Art | Purchase College from February 15 through April 26, 2009. The show offers a probing and entertaining look through the eyes of America’s most famous Pop artist at the political leaders who shaped the last century. More than sixty of Warhol’s paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs of these individuals will be displayed together for the first time. Sharon Matt Atkins, Exhibition Curator, Currier Museum of Art, curated the show.
Warhol comments on the interrelationships between politics and celebrity culture in the late twentieth century—connections that remain obvious today. Building on a long history of political portraiture dating back to Egyptian pharaohs, Roman emperors, and European monarchs, he pictures twentieth-century politicians in his particular graphic style, which likens them to commercial products like Campbell’s soup and Coca-Cola, connecting his images of these leaders to America’s rabid fascination with and consumption of contemporary culture. His portraits are not just records of individuals; they also position them within the context of prevailing cultural taste and political values.
Andy Warhol: Pop Politics also explores Warhol’s working methods. Studio assistants were responsible for much of his artistic production at The Factory in an almost assembly-line manner. However, Warhol was more directly involved with his portrait commissions than with any other works. Rather than manipulating media images, he began his commissions by taking dozens of Polaroids of his subject. After selecting one or more of these photographs, Warhol transformed the sitter’s likeness into his signature style, often first producing drawings and then prints and paintings as he did of other of his projects.
This exhibition will present these Polaroids alongside related works of a single subject, capturing Warhol’s process as well as the proliferation of images even within the artist’s own career. The installation will also include Mao wallpaper that Warhol created for a gallery presentation of his work in 1974. Archival materials from his “time capsules,” which contain newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, and correspondence that he collected throughout his career, will provide additional insights into the relationship between subject and artist.
Throughout his career, Warhol remained a dedicated portraitist. He recreated not only his own likeness repeatedly, but also those of friends, artists, actors, athletes, and world leaders, among others. His images of presidents, queens, Communist dictators, and other political figures have most often been discussed within the context of his portraits. Yet, these works reveal intriguing insights into Warhol’s own celebrity status and political leanings. His depictions of John F. Kennedy, Mao Zedong, Queen Elizabeth II and others were derived from widely circulated official or media photographs. Warhol’s appropriation of these stock images signaled his interest in how these political leaders ascended to celebrity status as a result of their constant representation in the media.
Warhol rose to fame in the 1960s and became synonymous with Pop art and American culture of the period. He played upon the increased bombardment of advertising and media images to develop a signature style that employed commercial subjects rendered in bold, graphic designs and colors using mass production processes. In capturing the rebellious spirit of the time through his work and personality, Warhol created a body of work that transformed our understanding of art by blurring the boundaries between art and popular culture, and shaped a new aesthetic that came to symbolize the counterculture. His now iconic work has influenced subsequent generations of artist and continues to resonate with audiences today.
In addition to selecting certain leaders as his subjects, Warhol also was commissioned by political hopefuls such as Edward Kennedy and Jimmy Carter.
Their selection of Warhol helped them position themselves as contemporary and progressive. That these projects, like Warhol’s Vote McGovern featuring a green-faced Richard Nixon, were produced to raise funds for candidates’ presidential campaigns, illuminates an active, if covert, political agenda by one who claimed he only voted once. Likewise, Warhol’s status in American society also gave him entrée into the world of politics. For example, he received a solicitation from President-Elect Nixon for recommendations for his administration. He also attended state dinners at the White House and was invited there by First Lady Nancy Reagan for an interview that later appeared in his magazine.
Warhol was fascinated by the Kennedy family, as demonstrated through his images of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy. Struck by the media coverage of President Kennedy’s assassination, Warhol created a series of works based on news images of Jackie, both as glamorous First Lady and as a grieving wife. Another major highlight is a one-of-a-kind, never-before exhibited screenprint of Senator Robert Kennedy that Warhol did not include in the final edition of the Flash portfolio, a print portfolio that includes eleven screenprints based on related news images of the Kennedy assassination, including the book depository, Lee Harvey Oswald and President Kennedy’s campaign poster.
