FREE ESSAY ON PORTRAITS BY WARHOL

PORTRAITS BY WARHOL

Some of the portraits that were done by Warhol began with Troy Donahue and Warren Beatty,
and Elvis Presley. Then later on came Marilynn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy. There was also
a series of car crash pictures done around this time. The Jackie Kennedy portraits were
done very shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy. They mirrored the
mourning face of Jackie that was shown time and time again in the media. There were eight
different images that were all taken from different newspapers at the time. The number of
works in this series is still unknown. (Crone pg 29)
The car crash pictures had an extreme amount of variation. They ranged from having one
picture to a canvas to having up to twenty on the same canvas at one time. There are many
different colored pictures in this set. The most major change from one to another is the
background color. It is difficult for critics to place the origination of the meaning of
this set of works. (Crone pg 29)
The series involving the electric chairs has a very serious political statement. It is a
symbol of misuse of governmental sovereignty; it has also been considered and open
confession of a deficiency in cultural development. (Crone) About the same time as the
electric chair pictures were being shown there were many other quite disturbing sets of
pictures being shown. They were of race riots and many were taken directly from newspaper
articles of the Nazi Germany and Castro's revolution in Cuba. (Crone pg 29)
One of the last serial sets that Warhol created before moving on from painting was of
flowers. The flowers were produced in an extreme variety of sizes and quantities. These
were on display in 1964. The original flowers were taken from a women magazine. Unlike
most of his earlier works, these reproductions were touched up by hand on the screen.
These are also different in that they do not represent anything to Warhol. They are
strictly decorative. The colors used in the painting aren't used to symbolize anything
but just to bring out color in decoration. In all there were about nine hundred of the
flower painting made in Warhol's studio, "The Factory". These were among the very last of
Warhol's paintings, in the remainder of his life he concentrated on movie making. (Crone
pg 30)
During Warhol's life his work has been controversial. He has become more recognized and
famous after his death in 1987. I think that his purpose for being an artist seemed to be
different from that of other artists. I'm not convinced he painted and filmed for the
love of the art or so much for his purpose in doing it. I think he had a message he
wanted to get across and this was the medium through which he chose to express himself.