Executed in 1979, this work will be included in the forthcoming volume of the Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné currently being prepared by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Andy Warhol’s arresting 1979 portrait of Hollywood icon Judy Garland epitomizes the artist’s ability to create mesmerizing portraits that reveal the mythical power of celebrity and mass media. To establish his singular approach, Warhol rejected the conventions of artistic portraiture and its search for psychological presence, instead focusing on the radiant glamor and flawless beauty of starlets. Judy, adorned with jewels and a perfectly styled coiffure, locks eyes with the viewer, her unbroken gaze the source of a compelling seductive force. Using his signature silkscreen technique, Warhol layered deep black tones in striking contrast against a pure white ground. The monumental scale of the portrait reflects the larger-than-life potency of stardom. Judy Garland is among Warhol’s most legendary and idolized subjects, alongside Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Audrey Hepburn. Warhol based the present work, executed ten years after Judy Garland’s death, on a studio photograph of the actress at the pinnacle of her beauty as a testament to her apotheosis into the canon of celebrity. Warhol’s portraits memorialize both his subjects and fame itself as commodities to be consumed.

Provenance

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York
Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London
Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in February 1999; sale: Christie’s London, February 6, 2008, lot 30)

Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)

Exhibitions

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Wanted: Selected Works from the Mugrabi Collection, 2013, illustrated in color pp. 38 and 58