Jackie

Andy Warhol’s portraits of the former American First Lady are among the most striking and poignant images that the artist ever produced. Painted in 1964, in the immediate aftermath of the death of her husband, Jackie encapsulates Warhol’s fixation with fame and mortality. Based on a widely circulated newspaper photograph of Jackie Kennedy right before her husband was shot, Warhol sets her face against a background of cool cerulean blue. This melancholic tone is in stark contrast to Jackie’s beaming smile and exemplifies Warhol’s perceptive use of color and composition. The result is a striking painting that transcends the realm of traditional portraiture, and becomes a commentary on how the history of an entire nation can change in a split second.

Reminiscent of Warhol’s evocative portrayals of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie becomes a momento mori for one of the most tragic and pivotal events in 20th century history. After the assassination, images of Jacqueline Kennedy saturated the media, flooding television feeds and newspaper headlines around the globe. Warhol, in replicating an image of Jackie made for public consumption, explores the hollowness of celebrity. He turns Jackie’s iconic pink pill box hat into a halo of subdued blue and saturates the image with inky darkness. In Jackie, Warhol commodifies the First Lady, transforming her into a religious icon—a secular saint for an increasingly agnostic America.