Lenin

Executed in 1986, Andy Warhol’s Lenin forms part of his last great series of works that he completed only two months before his death in February 1987. Defined by a striking blue tracery, Lenin’s glowing yellow visage emerges from the vivid red background taking on a near spectral quality. In his portrayal of Lenin, Warhol has taken an iconic figure, already laden with historicism and notoriety and intensified those characteristics by flattening the composition and employing a striking colour spectrum. This ‘Warholian treatment’ of his subject heightens the politicians near mythic status through the deep solemnity of his reticent stare. Like his other images of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis, Warhol emphasises only the most iconic characteristics which make them immediately recognisable in the public sphere. In this case, the silkscreen process, with its references to mechanical reproduction, takes on additional meaning in the realm of Lenin’s politics, where ‘machines and other improvements must serve to ease the work of all’ (V. Lenin, ‘To the Rural Poor’ 1903, V. Lenin, Collected Works: 6 January 1902 - August 1903, vol. 6, London 1961, p. 366).
The Lenin series draws many similarities with his other series profiling Communist leader Mao from 1972. Like his Mao series, here Warhol chose to bring the image of a Communist icon, which through his own ‘factory’, was elevated to the iconic status of the celebrity forever more. Warhol’s uncanny ability to tap into the cultural zeitgeist is abundantly present in his Lenin series, with the man epitomising Warhol’s interest in those individuals who were able to attain celebrity status, ultimately at the expense of their own perceived individuality. Thanks to the cult of personality perpetuated around Lenin after his death, his image was widely disseminated as a symbol of the Communist cause, making him in many respects the leading exponent of communist Pop. Dead since 1924, Lenin was still a potent symbol of Communism in the East and West. In Soviet Russia, his image remained bound up in the cult of personality used after his death to perpetuate the Communist ideal; in the West he represented the Red peril, which was still potent in the American psyche as Cold War arms discussions between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev continued to break down.
Warhol took as his source image a relatively obscure photograph of a young Lenin that had been shown to him the year before by gallerist Bernd Klüser. Warhol’s chosen image of Lenin presents a self-assured intellect with piercing eyes surrounded by his books, the epitome of a politician whose philosophy is rooted in theory. Indeed, Warhol has applied similar treatment to Lenin’s head and books to serve both composition purposes and to reinforce the perception of Lenin as an authority on Marxist doctrine. Significantly, Warhol’s chosen image of Lenin was in fact already doctored. It is a detail extracted from a group photograph that was taken in 1987 that shows Lenin surrounded by social Democrats who were to eventual become his enemies. Warhol has modified the image further, reducing the colour range and adding tracery so that the central details sharply contrast with the saturated red background. In ultimate ‘Warholian’ humour and subversion, the artist achieved this feat with the image of the one person who would be most horrified by these turn of events: ‘as for these portraits! They are all over the place! What is the point of it all?’ (V. Lenin in letter to Bontch-Bruyevich, 1918, Lenin by Warhol, exh. cat., Galerie Bernd Klüser, Munich, 1987, p. 67). Like a contemporary spin doctor, in his depictions of Lenin, Warhol has created the ultimate icon - one completely constructed of his own making, lending potency to an image that enabled it to surpass the icon previously exalted by the world.