Andy Warhol

Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York
Acquis auprès de celle-ci par le propriétaire actuel

The colours are fairly accurate in the catalogue illustration although the overall tonality is brighter in the original work. Moreover, the image does not convey the texture of the work. The work is executed on its original canvas and is not relined. One minor paint loss located on the rim of the right edge, 30 cm from the upper corner, is only visible under close inspection. The tip of each of the four corners presents some very faint wear marks. Under Ultra Violet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. This work is in very good condition.
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A la fin de l’année 1979, Andy Warhol a conquis la planète Art et sa réputation n’est plus à faire.  

Les commandes privées du monde des affaires et du spectacle affluent chez celui devenu pendant les vingt dernières années un faiseur d’icônes. Après le succès de la série des Skulls en 1976, qui s’inscrivait dans la continuité de la thématique warholienne de la mort, l’artiste entreprend à la fin de cette décennie 1970 de grandes séries rétrospectives et revisite certaines des images les plus emblématiques de sa production, devenues suffisamment célèbres pour être citées en tant que telles (Marylin, U.S. Dollar sign, Campbell’s soup… ).

 

C’est dans ce contexte, au début de l’année 1980, lors d’une rencontre fortuite avec Ronald Feldman, ancien avocat devenu l’un des galeristes de Warhol, que l’artiste lui fait part de sa volonté de se lancer dans un nouveau projet. L’idée se fait jour de réaliser un portfolio lithographique en collaboration avec la galerie. Feldman lui suggère dans un premier temps la représentation de 10 présidents américains mais Warhol qui a déjà travaillé sur les portraits de Kennedy, Nixon et Carter-candidat n’est pas convaincu…  La deuxième piste – celle qui sera finalement retenue – est de sélectionner et de célébrer des personnalités de confession juive qui ont marqué l’histoire du XX siècle. Le projet Ten Portraits of Jews of the XX Century est né. Une combinaison de différents facteurs est alors retenue pour la sélection définitive de dix penseurs, politiciens, artistes et écrivains: l’oeuvre ou les actes de chaque personnalité, leur intégrité religieuse mais aussi l’esthétique de l’image la plus iconique de chacun. Sont par exemple écartés de la série Marc Chagall , Bob Dylan ou Woody Allen… Dans le panthéon de l’artiste que Warhol choisira toujours d’appeler ses Jewish Geniuses sont retenus par ordre alphabétique Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Brandeis, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir et  Gertrude Stein.

 

Rapidement après le succès du portfolio lithographique, Warhol décide de concevoir la série des portraits comme des œuvres sur toile. A travers le procédé aussi original qu’éprouvé de la sérigraphie qui laisse l’empreinte de la trame de l’écran de soie, Warhol est fidèle à la nature initiale des documents qui sont à la base de son processus artistique : celle d’images antérieurement imprimées, déjà divulguées et relayées par la presse. En les transposant dans la dimension et sur le medium de la toile, Warhol entérine la visibilité et la notoriété de ces images préexistantes. Dans le cas du portrait de Sigmund Freud, Warhol se servit d’une photographie déjà presque mythique du fondateur de la psychanalyse dans les années 1900. Dans cette œuvre – qui est l’un des plus célèbres portraits de la série -  de larges aplats d’acrylique divisent le visage de manière prismatique – raisonnée et consciente pourrait-on dire  -  tandis qu’un trait de peinture rouge reliant plus ou moins assurément et métaphoriquement le cerveau  au cœur, est un élément dynamique presque perturbant.

 

Au moment de la première exposition des toiles à Miami en août 1980 et au Jewish Museum de New York un mois plus tard, la série fait scandale. Certains sont du plus vif enthousiasme, d’autres s’indignent de la superficialité et de la vulgarisation d’esprits à ce point respectables et hors du commun. Catalyseur des mythes et des modes de pensée de son temps, « Warhol a mis le monde à plat, il l’a multiplié, il l’a sérialisé » (Jean-Hubert Martin, Andy Warhol, Retrospective, 1989, p.7). Miroir de son époque, Warhol aura mis la figure humaine et le genre du portrait au centre de ce gigantesque et superbe système duquel participent Ten Portraits of Jews en général, le portrait de Sigmund Freud en particulier.

By the end of 1979, Andy Warhol had conquered the art world and his reputation already preceded him.

Private commissions flooded in from the business and live entertainment circles, to the artist who over the past twenty years had become a creator of icons.  After the successful Skulls series in 1976 that was part of Warhol’s ongoing death theme, at the end of the 1970s decade he started to produce major retrospective series, and revisited some of the most emblematic images of his production that had acquired sufficient fame to be referred to by their own name (Marilyn, U.S. Dollar sign, Campbell’s soup, etc.).

It is in this context, at the beginning of 1980, on the occasion of a chance meeting with Ronald Feldman, a former lawyer who had become one of the gallery owners dealing with Warhol, that the artist told him about his wish to embark on a new project.  The idea emerged to create a lithographic portfolio in collaboration with the gallery.  Firstly, Feldman suggested that he portray ten American presidents but Warhol, who had already worked on the portraits of Kennedy, Nixon and Carter the candidate, was not convinced.  A second idea, the one that was used in the end, was to select and to extol personalities of the Jewish faith who had made their mark on the history of the 20^th century.  The project Ten Portraits of Jews of the XX Century was born.  A combination of different factors was used to arrive at the final selection of ten thinkers, politicians, artists and writers: the work or action of each personality, their religious integrity and also the aesthetics of the most iconic image of each one of them.  Marc Chagall, Bob Dylan and Woody Allen, for instance, were left out of the series.  In Warhol's pantheon, that he always chose to call his Jewish Geniuses, are the following (in alphabetical order): Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Brandeis, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir and Gertrude Stein.

Very soon after the success of the lithographic portfolio, Warhol decided to design this series of portraits like paintings on canvas.  Through the original yet tried and tested silkscreen printing method that leaves the imprint of the weft of the silk screen, Warhol was true to the initial nature of the documents that formed the foundation of his artistic process: that of previously printed images, already disclosed and disseminated by the press.  By transposing them into the dimension and onto the medium of canvas, Warhol enshrined the visibility and fame of these pre-existing images.  In the case of the portrait of Sigmund Freud, Warhol used a photograph of the founder of psychoanalysis in the 1900s that was already almost legendary.  In this work – one of the most famous portraits in the series – broad flat swathes of acrylic divide the face in an almost prismatic – one might even say well thought out and aware – manner, whilst a line of red paint, linking the brain to the heart more or less doubtlessly and metaphorically, is an almost disturbing dynamic element.

At the time of the first exhibition of the canvases in Miami in August 1980 and at the Jewish Museum of New York one month later, the series sparked off controversy.  Whilst some showed utmost enthusiasm, others were outraged by the superficiality, and by the vulgarization of personalities as respectable and out of the ordinary as these.  As a catalyst of the legends and mindsets of his time, “Warhol examined the world from every angle, he multiplied it and he serialized it” ["Warhol a mis le monde à plat, il l'a multiplié, il l'a sérialisé"](Jean-Hubert Martin, Andy Warhol, Retrospective, 1989, p. 7).  Holding up a mirror to his time, Warhol placed the human face and the genre of the portrait at the centre of this gigantic and superb system, to which the Ten Portraits of Jews pertain in general, and the portrait of Sigmund Freud in particular.