Andy Warhol

“The most dangerous spy of all time, men worshipped her like a goddess, only to be betrayed by a kiss.” (Tag-line from Mata Hari (1931))

“I think interesting people make movies. Anybody could be a big star if they’re interesting.” (Andy Warhol in conversation with Glenn O’Brien, 1977, cited in Andy Warhol: The Late Work, Texts, London 2004, p.61)

In this striking portrait of Greta Garbo as Mata Hari, Warhol refines and develops his obsessions with fame, stardom and public image that fuelled his entire career. In a conscious echo of his 1960s portraits of the stellar trinity of Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, Warhol again focuses on a woman – or in this case two women – whose legend subsumes her life.

Mata Hari, which means “sun” in Malay, was the adopted stage name of Margaretha Zelle, a dancer and femme fatale, shot for espionage during World War I. A courtesan to many of the highest-ranking military officers and politicians of her day, she was arrested in her Paris hotel room on 13 February 1917. Accused of being the German spy codenamed H-21, she was found guilty and was executed by firing squad on 15 October 1917. It is, though, Greta Garbo’s portrayal of her in the film “Mata Hari”, released just 14 years after her death, to which Mata Hari owes her abiding fame. Thought somewhat risqué at the time – the censors complained about the revealing outfit Garbo wore for the movie poster – it fed the public’s fascination with the star. Known as “The Sphinx” for her taciturnity and the mystery that surrounded her, Garbo’s refusal to give interviews, attend premieres, answer fan mail or sign autographs only increased people’s desire to know the woman whose most famous line was the plaintive cry “I want to be alone.”

Warhol was said to consciously model himself after Garbo in the 1960s – aping her poses and intrigued by the contrast between her screen image and the silence of her private life. There is an apocryphal story of the two meeting at a picnic during which a young, nervous Warhol drew a picture of a butterfly and gave it to Garbo. When they were leaving he discovered that she had crumpled up the piece of paper and thrown it away. An expert at turning adversity to gain, Warhol retrieved it and titled it Crumpled Butterfly by Greta Garbo.

Notably in this context, the only other representation of a non-fictional character in the 1981 Myths series from which this portrait comes is Warhol’s own self-portrait as The Shadow. By placing these images within the Myths context, Warhol also acknowledges the way Garbo the star and Mata Hari whom she portrays have been turned into objects, every bit as commercial and recognisable an image in some ways as Dracula or Uncle Sam. The images Warhol chose for his Myths series – The Star, Uncle Sam, Superman, The Wicked Witch of the West, Mammy, Howdy Doody, Dracula, Mickey Mouse, Santa Claus, and The Shadow - were all taken from the most potent mass culture images from the time of Warhol’s childhood. The Myths clearly show what Warhol meant in his response to the question “do you believe in the American Dream?” “I don’t, but I think we can make some money out of it.” (ibid., p.64) Brimming with nostalgia, the series marks the beginning of Warhol’s 1980s quest for images from the past that led to him utilising his own work in the Reversal and Retrospective series as well as the work of other artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Edward Munch in his Art from Art series. In the Myths, Warhol is producing his first truly post-modernist work. As Warhol himself said, “they always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself”.

Deliberately depicted in a flat, planar manner, The Star becomes akin to a Byzantine Madonna. The choice of colours, the bright, gorgeous turquoise picked out by the green surrounding the eyes and the pink of the lips, adds to the jewel-like qualities of the image. There is no inquiry into the psychological or emotional depth of the sitter; rather, Warhol has again produced a “thing in itself”, an icon of popular culture, unspoilt by the subjective.