Andy Warhol

Mao Tse-Tung, 1972

Artist
Andy Warhol
Title
Mao Tse-Tung
Dimensions and medium
4 silkscreen prints, 129/250 (2), 66/250 (2), 91.3 × 91.3 cm (each)
Artwork description
Andy Warhol’s imagery stems from the artificial world of reproduction, supermarkets, Hollywood celebrities and other famous, immediately recognizable people, as with his series of silk-screened prints of Mao Tse-Tung. This edition of ten aggressively coloured prints is an impersonal illustration of Mao that focuses on the ubiquitous and seemingly timeless nature of his image. Warhol strips his portrait of any sentiment, the same way he would depict an image of a soup can or a movie star’s face. The political figure is treated in an ascetic and ironic manner that nonetheless fascinates. Both mythical and popular, he becomes the reflection of an entire society. Multiplying the image both simplifies and mechanizes Warhol’s fabrication process while anonymizing his subject, reducing him to a static image void of any substance. The scribbled, quasi-expressionistic lines draw attention to Mao’s face and jacket, which Warhol reproduced in different colours from one print to the next. The mechanical silk-screening process and juxtaposition of repeated imagery drains the portrait of all meaning, and in some ways, stifles any emotional element it may have possessed.

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