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Lot Essay
Flaunting an unprecedented painterly bravura from the king of Pop, Warhol's Mao is a gem of gestural execution. Revealing the artist's return to painting after a seven year hiatus, it is a shout-out-loud appreciation for the physical properties of material and process; indeed, despite the work's partaking of the artist's signature silkscreening technique, Mao is a triumphant celebration of the hand.
As the first major critical and commercial success after Warhol's premature retirement from painting in 1965 for the sole pursuit of film, the Mao series marks a turning point in the artist's career and the beginning of a new direction for his creative energies. Colliding with a groundbreaking moment in Cold-War history, Mao provided Warhol with a critical subject with which to re-enter the arena of fine art. The year witnessed a historic easing of tensions between the United States and China with Nixon's visit to the communist state and it was not long before the public was awash in the visage of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. Plumbing the sudden nation-wide fixation, Warhol brilliantly mined the myth surrounding the man synonymous with absolute political and cultural power. In doing so, he revealed his brilliance in turning people into icons, etching them into public consciousness for an eternity that stretched beyond their temporal reigns.
Warhol's rendition of an authoritarian ruler functioned with mass-media effectiveness and indeed, was anchored in the media's power to create, canonize and commodify personas for collective absorption. While his earlier logo-like representation of stars reflected the consumerist ethos of American capitalism and the publicity machinations that underpinned it, Warhol's Mao reveals the centrally controlled propaganda apparatus of Chinese communism. Mao's physiognomy was propagated via billboards, posters and pamphlets throughout China; indeed, Warhol derived the silk-screen image for Mao from an official state portrait in the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, a widely circulated reservoir of the leader's ideology.
Warhol's silkscreening technique which forms the basis of Mao was ideally suited to revealing the manipulation behind public images. His garish palette furthered this revelation with its flat juxtapositions allowing for no visual penetration; indeed, adorned with bright collisions of yellow, green, purple and blue, Warhol seemed to actively mock the imperious gravitas and masculine strength of the original black and white photograph. Initiating uncharacteristically expressive brushwork, he furthered this parody through broad, loose strokes throughout the portrait. Such subjective interjections are particularly subversive considering that China's collective regime proscribed individual creativity; indeed, Warhol's vigorous handling threatens to obliterate the image of Mao into a blur of luscious pigment. With a palpable relish of medium, Mao provided Warhol with the perfect opportunity to channel his revitalized creative energies into a fresh painterly direction.
As the first major critical and commercial success after Warhol's premature retirement from painting in 1965 for the sole pursuit of film, the Mao series marks a turning point in the artist's career and the beginning of a new direction for his creative energies. Colliding with a groundbreaking moment in Cold-War history, Mao provided Warhol with a critical subject with which to re-enter the arena of fine art. The year witnessed a historic easing of tensions between the United States and China with Nixon's visit to the communist state and it was not long before the public was awash in the visage of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. Plumbing the sudden nation-wide fixation, Warhol brilliantly mined the myth surrounding the man synonymous with absolute political and cultural power. In doing so, he revealed his brilliance in turning people into icons, etching them into public consciousness for an eternity that stretched beyond their temporal reigns.
Warhol's rendition of an authoritarian ruler functioned with mass-media effectiveness and indeed, was anchored in the media's power to create, canonize and commodify personas for collective absorption. While his earlier logo-like representation of stars reflected the consumerist ethos of American capitalism and the publicity machinations that underpinned it, Warhol's Mao reveals the centrally controlled propaganda apparatus of Chinese communism. Mao's physiognomy was propagated via billboards, posters and pamphlets throughout China; indeed, Warhol derived the silk-screen image for Mao from an official state portrait in the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, a widely circulated reservoir of the leader's ideology.
Warhol's silkscreening technique which forms the basis of Mao was ideally suited to revealing the manipulation behind public images. His garish palette furthered this revelation with its flat juxtapositions allowing for no visual penetration; indeed, adorned with bright collisions of yellow, green, purple and blue, Warhol seemed to actively mock the imperious gravitas and masculine strength of the original black and white photograph. Initiating uncharacteristically expressive brushwork, he furthered this parody through broad, loose strokes throughout the portrait. Such subjective interjections are particularly subversive considering that China's collective regime proscribed individual creativity; indeed, Warhol's vigorous handling threatens to obliterate the image of Mao into a blur of luscious pigment. With a palpable relish of medium, Mao provided Warhol with the perfect opportunity to channel his revitalized creative energies into a fresh painterly direction.