.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In Warhol's Jackie we are presented with an intimate portrait of the wife of President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jackie Kennedy, which was painted in 1964. She is presented as the quintessential WASP, the look which so attracted Warhol to her. Jackie was an icon of the era, and 'a breath of fresh air who did something few presidents and no other first lady had ever done. She elevated America, and she did it through style.' (P. Keogh quoted in Jackie Style, London, 2001, p. 14) Wearing her trademark pillbox hat and smiling beautifully, she looks relaxed and glamorous. However, when one probes deeper into the scene, it becomes clear that there are much darker undertones to the portrait. Jackie is part of a series of celebrity portraits Warhol executed in this period, and they are widely received to the best works of his career, including the Marilyn Monroe and the Elvis Presley. These were all made at the same time as Warhol was focusing on his 'Death and Disaster' series, and they are considered to be companion pieces. For that reason, the context of Jackie contradicts the smiling happiness of its content.
The image on which Jackie is based was taken on the morning of 22nd November, 1963, after the President and First Lady arrived in Dallas.
Only a few hours later the course of American history was to change, with a gunshot fired by Lee Harvey Oswald killing President Kennedy.
This makes Warhol's portrait all the more poignant, as we are now aware of the imminent tragedy that is so at odds with the open smiles and blissful happiness of the picture itself. This is something that was of great interest to Warhol, who investigated the international frenzy that followed the death of Kennedy with a whole body of work based on the images of Jackie which saturated the media for days after the death of her husband.
Kennedy's assassination was the first significant TV news event of its kind, with all three major television networks giving it all-news coverage for seventy hours- a record only beaten after the 9/11 attacks on the world trade centre in New York. Scenes of an emotional and shocked Jackie Kennedy were sent around the world, resonating with a somber national mood. This profoundly affected Warhol, who said 'I'd been thrilled having Kennedy as president; he was handsome, young, smart - but it didn't bother me that much that he was dead. What bothered me was the way the television and radios were programming everybody to feel so sad...' (Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett, Popism: The Warhol Sixties, New York, 1980, p.60.) The portrait of Jackie is Warhol's attempt to deal with this sadness, immortalizing her with his infamous silkscreens. More than any other artist of his time, Warhol brilliantly captured the drama of the sixties, producing some of the most iconic images to emerge form the period. Jackie documents the style icon of the era, a fresh-faced beauty radiating as the ultimate contemporary icon of glamour, moments before the world as she knew it came to an end.
The image on which Jackie is based was taken on the morning of 22nd November, 1963, after the President and First Lady arrived in Dallas.
Only a few hours later the course of American history was to change, with a gunshot fired by Lee Harvey Oswald killing President Kennedy.
This makes Warhol's portrait all the more poignant, as we are now aware of the imminent tragedy that is so at odds with the open smiles and blissful happiness of the picture itself. This is something that was of great interest to Warhol, who investigated the international frenzy that followed the death of Kennedy with a whole body of work based on the images of Jackie which saturated the media for days after the death of her husband.
Kennedy's assassination was the first significant TV news event of its kind, with all three major television networks giving it all-news coverage for seventy hours- a record only beaten after the 9/11 attacks on the world trade centre in New York. Scenes of an emotional and shocked Jackie Kennedy were sent around the world, resonating with a somber national mood. This profoundly affected Warhol, who said 'I'd been thrilled having Kennedy as president; he was handsome, young, smart - but it didn't bother me that much that he was dead. What bothered me was the way the television and radios were programming everybody to feel so sad...' (Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett, Popism: The Warhol Sixties, New York, 1980, p.60.) The portrait of Jackie is Warhol's attempt to deal with this sadness, immortalizing her with his infamous silkscreens. More than any other artist of his time, Warhol brilliantly captured the drama of the sixties, producing some of the most iconic images to emerge form the period. Jackie documents the style icon of the era, a fresh-faced beauty radiating as the ultimate contemporary icon of glamour, moments before the world as she knew it came to an end.