Loti Smorgon
1981
Medium
oil and screenprint on canvas
Measurements
(a-b) 102.1 × 204.0 cm (overall)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Ginny Green, Sandra Bardas OAM family, Vicki Vidor OAM and Bindy Koadlow in memory of their parents Loti Smorgon AO and Victor Smorgon AC through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2014
© Andy Warhol/ARS, New York. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Andy Warhol’s portrait of Loti Smorgon is a characteristically arresting doubleportrait of the prominent Australian art collector and patron. It is one of only a handful of portraits by Warhol of Australian subjects. In an interview with curator Deborah Hart, Smorgon recalled that Warhol took hundreds of Polaroids during her sitting and invited her to select those she liked best: ‘I said he shouldn’t make [the portrait] too pretty ... But he did the opposite. He did what he wanted and he seemed to see in me something that was quite serene. Looking back, it was a wonderful experience. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world’.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
New York, New York, United States
Inscription
(a) inscribed in fibre-tipped pen on reverse u.c.: loti smorgon
inscribed in fibre-tipped pen on reverse u.c.r.: Andy Warhol 1981
inscribed in fibre-tipped pen on reverse u.r.: nyc
(b) inscribed in fibre-tipped pen on reverse u.c.: loti smorgon
inscribed in fibre-tipped pen on reverse u.c.r.: Andy Warhol 1981 nyc
Accession Number
2014.375.a-b
Department
Contemporary Art
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Portraits
Subjects (specific)
busts (general, figures) patrons (philanthropists) Smorgon, Loti stylisation three-quarter views women (female humans)
Movements
Pop (fine arts styles)