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.

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.”