“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.”
—Andy Warhol
The series of screen-painted portraits, that came to dominate Warhol’s enterprise throughout the 1980s, are here exemplified in unmistakable clarity. Warhol’s adoption of image-reproduction as a means to reframe timeless themes such as fame, authority, and consumption are well commented upon. Indeed, his portraits of iconic 20th century figures present as short-hand for Warhol’s shrewd commentary on popular culture and mass-production.
In the present example, however, the sitter is neither famous nor infamous and is nevertheless rendered with characteristic elegance. Warhol’s choice to portray a sitter that is an acquaintance of his in the first instance, departs from the overstated glamour of certain other portaits. Instead, Warhol returns to the guiding principal of a ready-made aesthetic that is built around the production, modification, and mass-circulation of photographic images. The result is an image that is certainly timeless, not for its depiction of fame or power, but instead for its ability to encapsulate and validate the centrality of portraiture in contemporary art.
