Big Shots: Andy Warhol's Polaroid Portraits
Saturday, August 30, 2008 - Sunday, December 14, 2008
Andy Warhol (1928–1987), the prodigy of American Pop Art, purchased a Polaroid Big Shot camera around 1970 and used it to capture the images that would be the starting point for all his work until the end of his life. Each photograph in this exhibition is, thus, a “sketch”, the first step in producing the dazzling portraits of the 1970s and ‘80s. Portraiture figured prominently throughout Warhol’s career, from his finely rendered drawings of friends in the 1950s to the iconic Pop Art paintings of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960s. Beginning in 1962, all his portraits were based on silkscreens of existing studio stills, newspaper photographs, or, for some private commissions, photobooth snapshots. Photography, not drawing, became the foundation of all Warhol’s work.
After his recovery from a nearly fatal shooting in 1968, Warhol launched upon a new venture (that would support his more experimental work) as a “society portrait painter.” He began actively seeking commissions from the beautiful, wealthy, and famous for portraits at $25,000 apiece (with a discount for additional copies). Most portrait sessions took place at the Factory, as he called his famous studio. A typical session began with a gossipy, communal lunch to break the ice, then the photo shoot would begin. Warhol, standing only a few feet from his subject, snapped about a hundred Polaroids during a typical sitting. As the artist took pictures and gave directions on how to pose, an assistant would lay out the developing prints for Warhol and the client to consider at the end of the session.
Once a particular pose was chosen, that image would be enlarged in black and white on an acetate sheet. Warhol would sometimes perform “plastic surgery” on the enlargement, cutting out double chins and wrinkles to lend aging socialites the glamour of Marilyn and Liz. A silkscreen would then be made from the enlargement of the Polaroid and used to print the image on either canvas or paper. The screenprint Lillian Carter (1977) is one example of a finished portrait. The brilliant colors and markings of the final work—layers of cosmetic artifice—all came from Warhol’s imagination.
Warhol employed Polaroids not only as the bases of his individual commissions, but also for other projects such as various series commissioned by art galleries for resale by collectors. Dorothy Hamill (1977) was included in a series of famous athletes. Mother Goose (1981), although eventually dropped, was originally intended to be one of a series of fictional figures entitled Myths. Alphanso Panell (1974) was photographed for Ladies and Gentlemen, a series of black and Latino drag queens. Each of the Polaroids allows us to glimpse the variety of each figure’s poses before they were canonized in a painting or print—the image before the icon.
After his recovery from a nearly fatal shooting in 1968, Warhol launched upon a new venture (that would support his more experimental work) as a “society portrait painter.” He began actively seeking commissions from the beautiful, wealthy, and famous for portraits at $25,000 apiece (with a discount for additional copies). Most portrait sessions took place at the Factory, as he called his famous studio. A typical session began with a gossipy, communal lunch to break the ice, then the photo shoot would begin. Warhol, standing only a few feet from his subject, snapped about a hundred Polaroids during a typical sitting. As the artist took pictures and gave directions on how to pose, an assistant would lay out the developing prints for Warhol and the client to consider at the end of the session.
Once a particular pose was chosen, that image would be enlarged in black and white on an acetate sheet. Warhol would sometimes perform “plastic surgery” on the enlargement, cutting out double chins and wrinkles to lend aging socialites the glamour of Marilyn and Liz. A silkscreen would then be made from the enlargement of the Polaroid and used to print the image on either canvas or paper. The screenprint Lillian Carter (1977) is one example of a finished portrait. The brilliant colors and markings of the final work—layers of cosmetic artifice—all came from Warhol’s imagination.
Warhol employed Polaroids not only as the bases of his individual commissions, but also for other projects such as various series commissioned by art galleries for resale by collectors. Dorothy Hamill (1977) was included in a series of famous athletes. Mother Goose (1981), although eventually dropped, was originally intended to be one of a series of fictional figures entitled Myths. Alphanso Panell (1974) was photographed for Ladies and Gentlemen, a series of black and Latino drag queens. Each of the Polaroids allows us to glimpse the variety of each figure’s poses before they were canonized in a painting or print—the image before the icon.
