“Kiddo was his nickname for me. He called the apartment at least once a day and on occasions when I answered the phone, he’d always take the time to ask about pop culture in my pre-teen (and, later, teenage) world before asking: ‘Is your Pops there?’”
—Berkeley ReinholdAndy Warhol used portraiture to immortalise the icons of his time allowing his audience a timelessly passive glimpse into twentieth century popular culture. However, Berkeley Reinhold, encapsulates Warhol’s sentimental side. Berkeley was the 10-year-old daughter of the artist’s friend John Reinhold, who was a diamond dealer and art collector living and working in New York. Warhol and Reinhold developed a fast and close friendship. Outside of their weekly trips to Studio 54, the pair phoned one another several times a day. Reinhold supplied Warhol with diamond dust for his paintings whilst Warhol signed a Cambell’s soup can for Berkeley’s art teachers in attempt to raise her grades. For Reinhold, ‘knowing Andy definitely changed the course of my life, no question about it.’ i
Berkeley’s tilted head and sulky expression emphasised by the strikingly contrasting lipstick chosen for her at The Factory for her photoshoot offers a universally nostalgic image of early adolescence. Warhol planned to produce an annual portrait of her across a 10-year period. In contrast to his serial portraits of figures such as Marilyn Monroe or Jackie Kennedy which encapsulate the repetitive nature of contemporary mass production, Warhol’s project for Berkeley relies patiently on the passage of time to capture the sitter’s changes during a formative and transformative period of her life. In this way, the work echoes his minimalist Screen Tests of the 1960s. These slow, silent black-and-white films presented their subjects as ‘living’ portraits, evoking an enchantingly subdued yet powerful mode of expression which evolves over the course of their duration.
However, the present work is the first and only work from this planned project as Berkeley – preoccupied with ‘boys, friends and school’ – sat only once for Warhol.ii Perpetually frozen as an endearingly pouty pre-teen, the present work is both a testament to Warhol’s unique ability to create enduring, striking portraiture and a deeply intimate gesture of friendship, care and generosity towards the Reinhold family.
