Andy Warhol Portraits
Andy Warhol portraits have become some of the most iconic images produced in the 20th century.
“I’ll paint anybody. Anybody that asks me. I just try to make people look good.” – Warhol.
Andy Warhol spent his childhood collecting celebrity autographs and decorating his room with photos torn from tabloid magazines long before Andy Warhol portraits of celebrities, the rich and famous lead him to become known as one of the most famous and recognisable artists of all time.
Warhol’s fixation on celebrities only ever increased when he moved to New York in the 1960s to become an illustrator for Glamour magazine and endured through his career as a Pop artist. Andy Warhol portraits focused on movie stars, sport stars and politicians.
Warhol created silkscreens of these portraits to allow him to mass-produce images of his subjects, often in creating variations of the images in different colour-ways. As will as creating many prints, Warhol also took many polaroids to capture celebrities. Critics have observed that his technique mirrors the nature of celebrity itself, where icons like Mick Jagger, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and Elvis Presley have become commodities to be bought and sold.
Warhol most iconic portrait is that of Marilyn Monroe. After the actress’s death in 1962, Warhol instantly began to reproduce her portrait, based on a photograph from 1953 taken by Gene Kornman for the promotion of the movie Niagara.