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Andy Warhol has been credited with reviving the tradition of grand portraiture
from the moribund state it had fallen into during the 20th century. Warhol's
interest in portraiture began in the early 1960s when he began to make drawings
and paintings from publicity photographs of celebrities such as Troy Donahue,
Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley. These images, which he collected from books
and magazines, appealed to Warhol due to their simple, straightforward
presentation of the subject. By using a photograph from a magazine or his own
Polaroid of the subject, Warhol distances the portrait from its subject, thus
allowing him to explore the relationship between the genuine and the fake, the
real and the simulated. Like many of Warhol's portraits, Russell Means
was done as a multiple. Warhol would often display these multiple images in
decorative rows or grids-a device that further distanced the unique reality of
the person from the image. The process of making his portraits was also
journalistic and impersonal: Warhol would send the snapshot or Polaroid to a
laboratory where it was enlarged in black and white and then transferred to a
silkscreen. From the silkscreen, the image was printed on canvas and embellished
with touches of artist-applied paint.
Russell Means, an Oglala Sioux, gained wide visibility in 1973 when he led a
group of Native Americans in a symbolic takeover of Wounded Knee. The siege
lasted 71 days. Warhol's image presents Means as a giant celebrity whose noble
features have been softened and glamorized. In Warhol's portrait, Means' status
as celebrity hero takes precedence over his actuality as a person and his
political importance.
Marianne Lorenz
SUGGESTED READINGS:
McShine, Kynaston, ed. Andy Warhol: A Retrospective. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1989.
Whitney, David, ed. Andy Warhol: Portraits of the 70s. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1989.
