Andy Warhol: Portraits
Press Release
September 17, 1998 through October 31, 1998

If portraiture is traditionally defined as reproducing a recognizable likeness of a subject, then a great portion of Andy Warhol’s work can be considered portraits. While Warhol’s portraiture has been addressed in shows focusing on drawings or paintings, this show at the Kantor Gallery has wider scope. This is an exhibit where the breadth of Warhol’s portrait work will be explored. Here the treatment of his commissioned portraits will be available for comparison to his portraits, or portrayals, of the personalities who made up the canonic landscape of 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. For example, this is a show where the technique of Warhol’s ink blot ‘prints’ and drawings from the 50’s can be compared with the very different line found in his later drawings from the 80’s. Where ‘formal’, commissioned portraits form the 70’s and 80’s will hang with Warhol’s earlier ‘portrait’ work of Jackie, Marilyn, and Mao.

In short, this exhibit strives to be a survey of Warhol’s portraits and how they evolved over the course of his working career as arguably the most important artist of the last half of the century.