NARRATOR:  

In this pensive self-portrait, Andy Warhol’s easily-recognizable face is linked to his equally identifiable painting style. His photographic image was silk-screened in contrasting colors on top of a hand-painted apple green background. 

JANET BISHOP:  

He’s used a four-color silkscreen process. On the left hand side of the piece, it’s very sort of drippy and undefined and almost takes on a kind of camouflage effect, which was something that he would continue to work with in subsequent paintings.  

NARRATOR:  

Curator, Janet Bishop.  

BISHOP: 

I like the way that he’s emerging from something that’s very mysterious on the left hand side, the part of his face on the right side of the canvas comes across very clearly in red and blue.  

This painting is part of a series of self-portraits based on a photograph of himself Warhol made for the 1967 Expo in Montreal. It came after his portrait paintings of celebrities like Elvis Presley, It came after his celebrity portraits of Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, and Jackie Onassis, that were based on images from newspapers and magazines. But he treats his own image very differently from theirs.  

Because of the way he holds his hand in front of his face in a very contemplative manner, he really appears to be looking out from the canvas. He’s not being observed, sort of caught off guard, in the way that many of the celebrities that he treated have been. But Warhol, in this particular piece, is obviously very aware of the camera.