Andy Warhol: Self Portraits (Fright Wigs)

Skarstedt is pleased to present Andy Warhol: Self Portraits (Fright Wigs), an exhibition of five, monumental works from the artist’s final self-portrait series which will be on view from February 23 – April 22, 2017 at Skarstedt’s Upper East Side gallery. Completed in 1986, less than a year before Warhol’s untimely death, these haunting self-portraits have been championed as some of Warhol’s most iconic paintings.
Andy Warhol’s larger-than-life self-portraits were commissioned by Anthony d’Offay. Unveiled in July 1986 at d’Offay’s London gallery, the show represented the first and only exhibition in Warhol’s career dedicated entirely to the theme of self-portraiture. Overwhelming in scale, the artist’s ghostly portrait emerges from a seemingly infinite black void. The artist’s decision to wear a black turtleneck allows for his neck, shoulders and torso to disappear, focusing the attention on his sunken features. His skull-like face, gaunt and boney, wears an impenetrable, piercing stare that is juxtaposed by the electricity of his wig, which swings to the top of the canvas in a strong, vertical movement. Reminiscent of a Byzantine icon, Warhol’s frontal portrait floats among a flat, ambiguous surface; time and space dissolve and viewers are left only with a memento mori, or a precursor to his impending death.
The Self Portrait (Fright Wig) series represents a culmination of themes present in Warhol’s oeuvre. Throughout his career, Warhol painted portraits of celebrities, politicians and socialites that he considered the icons of contemporary life. Here he places himself in that same category, elevating his own status and the status of the artist. Further, Warhol employs his mechanical approach to art making by using his perfected silk-screen technique to create a serialized image. In a lesser-known interview by Gretchen Berg in 1967, Warhol said, “In my art work, hand painting would take much too long and anyway that’s not the age we live in. Mechanical means are today, and using them I can get more art to more people. Art should be for everyone.”