Andy Warhol
Self-Portrait
1985
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Andy Warhol
Self-Portrait
1985
Physical Qualities
Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas, 80 1/16 x 80 in. (203.4 x 203.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Purchase with exchange funds from Bequest of Saidie A. May; and partial gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Object Number
1994.37
Like Rembrandt (1606–1669) and Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Warhol made many self-portraits throughout his career. Compared to earlier youthful and attractive images of himself, the widely recognized “fright-wig” paintings, produced during the year before Warhol’s death, present an uncompromising, aged, and haunting picture of the platinum-wigged artist, who once commented: “I’m sure I’m going to look in the mirror and see nothing. People are always calling me a mirror and if a mirror looks into a mirror, what is there to see?” This off-register, doubled portrait, suggests the impossibility
of pinning down the “true” or “real” Warhol, an elusive quality the artist cultivated in interviews and displayed in his public persona.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase and partial gift, 1994; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Hugh Lane Gallery, "Three Times Out". Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, Ireland, 4 October 2023- 28 January 2024.
Joseph D. Ketner II, "Andy Warhol: The Last Decade," Milwaukee Art Museum, September 23, 2009-January 3, 2010; circulated to Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, February 15-May 15, 2010; Brooklyn Museum of Art, June 18-September 12, 2010; and The Baltimore Museum of Art, October 17, 2010-January 9, 2011.
Joseph D. Ketner II, "Andy Warhol: The Last Decade," Milwaukee Art Museum, September 23, 2009-January 3, 2010; circulated to Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, February 15-May 15, 2010; Brooklyn Museum of Art, June 18-September 12, 2010; and The Baltimore Museum of Art, October 17, 2010-January 9, 2011.
John Dorsey, "BMA acquires 18 Warhols," "The Sun," Baltimore, Maryland, May 5, 1994, pp. 1A, 25A, ill. p. 1A.
Joseph D. Ketner II, "Andy Warhol: The Last Decade," Milwaukee/New York: Milwaukee Art Museum/DelMonico Books, 2009, no. 63, pp. 165, 210, ill. p. 165.
Inscribed: FRONT: clean. BACK: (black stamp), 'THE ESTATE/OF/ANDY WARHOL(encircled)', at BLE and URE; 'PO 40.052' at BLE, URE, and L of C horizontal stretcher.
