Warhol, Andy. (1928–1987) . Self Portrait (1980).
Unique polaroid print self portrait photograph by Warhol, signed in black ink to the lower margin. 4¼ x 3 3/8 in. (10.8 x 8.6 cm.). Very fine.
From the collection Paul McMahon, who was himself a subject of a Warhol polaroid portrait, a critic, photographer and artist who worked for more than 13 years touring with Marlene Dietrich as the icon’s stage manager, announcer, dresser, secretary and escort, and later spent 25 years as an arts and entertainment reviewer and photographer with Gay Community News, Esplanade, Tommy’s Connection, The Mirror, Bay Windows and other publications.
Perhaps no other artist has been as preoccupied with his own likeness as Warhol, so much so that his own Self-Portrait constitutes a very significant body of his work, the subject of many museum and gallery exhibitions and never-ending fascination with this inscrutable and elusive figure. In some instances Warhol's Polaroids were a key component of his famous silkscreen paintings, and he also used Polaroids to help with his commercial assignments, for example when he worked on his famous campaign for Absolut Vodka, and for private commissions of patrons and Upper East Side types. Warhol didn’t want a clear demarcation between his personal life and his work or between high and low culture, and the Polaroid camera is a perfect tool for that blurring of boundaries. He began using the Polaroid as a medium in the early ‘70s. The artist is known to have favored the Polaroid Big Shot, designed specifically for portraiture with a fixed focal range of about 3 feet and a single shutter speed mechanically timed with a flash diffuser. The choice of the Polaroid as a medium is of special significance for Warhol, moderator of the hand-made – readymade dialogue that runs through the 20th century and into the 21st. A Polaroid is, of course, a unique work of art created by means of mechanical reproduction. It was the peoples’ camera providing instant gratification. The unmitigated Polaroid image serially gives rise an unmistakable signature style. Warhol first silkscreened his own image based on a photomat strip in 1963 and continued to return to the subject throughout his life, culminating in the famous “Fright-Wig” image. The Polaroid photograph was a vital element to Warhol’s celebrity portraiture and to his self-portraiture.
Warhol did not generally sign his polaroids and we have located sales records of only a dozen authentically signed examples at auction or in the market in the past 20 years, and of this already small number, only a handful are signed self-portraits.
Warhol, Andy. (1928–1987) . Self Portrait (1980).
Unique polaroid print self portrait photograph by Warhol, signed in black ink to the lower margin. 4¼ x 3 3/8 in. (10.8 x 8.6 cm.). Very fine.
From the collection Paul McMahon, who was himself a subject of a Warhol polaroid portrait, a critic, photographer and artist who worked for more than 13 years touring with Marlene Dietrich as the icon’s stage manager, announcer, dresser, secretary and escort, and later spent 25 years as an arts and entertainment reviewer and photographer with Gay Community News, Esplanade, Tommy’s Connection, The Mirror, Bay Windows and other publications.
Perhaps no other artist has been as preoccupied with his own likeness as Warhol, so much so that his own Self-Portrait constitutes a very significant body of his work, the subject of many museum and gallery exhibitions and never-ending fascination with this inscrutable and elusive figure. In some instances Warhol's Polaroids were a key component of his famous silkscreen paintings, and he also used Polaroids to help with his commercial assignments, for example when he worked on his famous campaign for Absolut Vodka, and for private commissions of patrons and Upper East Side types. Warhol didn’t want a clear demarcation between his personal life and his work or between high and low culture, and the Polaroid camera is a perfect tool for that blurring of boundaries. He began using the Polaroid as a medium in the early ‘70s. The artist is known to have favored the Polaroid Big Shot, designed specifically for portraiture with a fixed focal range of about 3 feet and a single shutter speed mechanically timed with a flash diffuser. The choice of the Polaroid as a medium is of special significance for Warhol, moderator of the hand-made – readymade dialogue that runs through the 20th century and into the 21st. A Polaroid is, of course, a unique work of art created by means of mechanical reproduction. It was the peoples’ camera providing instant gratification. The unmitigated Polaroid image serially gives rise an unmistakable signature style. Warhol first silkscreened his own image based on a photomat strip in 1963 and continued to return to the subject throughout his life, culminating in the famous “Fright-Wig” image. The Polaroid photograph was a vital element to Warhol’s celebrity portraiture and to his self-portraiture.
Warhol did not generally sign his polaroids and we have located sales records of only a dozen authentically signed examples at auction or in the market in the past 20 years, and of this already small number, only a handful are signed self-portraits.