Self-portrait no. 9
1986
Medium
synthetic polymer paint and screenprint on canvas
Measurements
203.5 × 203.7 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of the National Gallery Women's Association, Governor, 1987
© Andy Warhol/ARS, New York. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Level 3, NGV International
About this work
Andy Warhol purposely sought an alternative to the emotionally charged paintings of the Abstract Expressionists by adopting a commercial, hands-off approach to art. He borrowed images from American popular culture and celebrated ordinary consumer goods, as well as media and political personalities. He featured them in serial paintings and prints that relied on commercial silk-screening techniques for reproduction. After the early 1960s his most frequent subjects were the famous people he knew, and occasionally he was his own subject. In this eerie, self-portrait, produced just a few months before his death in February, 1987, Warhol appears as a haunting, disembodied mask. His head floats in a dark black void and his face and hair are ghostly pale, covered in a camouflage pattern of flamboyant colours.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in fibre-tipped pen (vertically) on reverse c.r.: Andy Warhol 86
Accession Number
IC3-1987
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)
artists (visual artists) camouflage hairstyles portrait heads self-portraits Warhol, Andy
Movements
Pop (fine arts styles)