Rod Gilbert

Andy Warhol’s The Complete Athletes Series demonstrates the changing nature of fame in the 1970s, granting athletes the Pop Art treatment that was previously reserved for movie stars and musicians. Art collector Richard Weisman commissioned the portraits in 1977 with an ambitious goal in mind: he hoped to “inspire people who loved sport to come into galleries, maybe for the first time, and people who liked art would take their first look at a sports superstar" (R. Wiseman quoted in K. Casprowiak, "Warhol's Athlete Series Celebrity Sport Stars", Andy Warhol: The Athlete Series, London, 2007, p. 71). The series marked a new terrain for Warhol, who had little familiarity with sports. Nonetheless, he excelled, capturing the unique personalities and public personas of each sports figure. Warhol photographed eleven athletes, although only ten were ultimately depicted in series. The final series depicts O.J. Simpson, Dorothy Hamill, Pelé, Jack Nicklaus, Rod Gilbert, Muhammad Ali, Tom Seaver, Willie Shoemaker, Chris Evert, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, each an athletic legend in the 1970s. Warhol then applied silkscreen prints of the polaroid photos onto pre-painted canvases. Finally, he left forceful marks of paint, using a palette knife and his own fingers to manipulate the images. The result is a set of remarkably textured, highly-stylized and expressive portraits that draw upon Warhol’s longstanding fascination with celebrity.