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21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

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Period: 21st Century and Contemporary
"James Dean" Contemporary Black and Yellow Pop Art Porsche Car Racing Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Contemporary pop culture inspired painting by German artist Jörg Döring. The work features a dynamic depiction of James Dean driving his Porsche 550 Spyder with the iconic number "13...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Body Abstract Series" RK3TE, Abstract, Painting, 21st Century, Acrylic
Located in Dessau-Rosslau, Sachsen Anhalt
Artist: Roger König b. Dessau, Germany (1968) Master student of Kurt Schönburg, HWK Halle, Germany. König combines modern painting with acrylic with old techniques and in this way, h...
Category

Abstract 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Clay, Acrylic

"Primaries" by Karina Rodríguez, Contemporary Still Life Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
"Primaries" is an exquisitely detailed contemporary still life by Karina Rodríguez, rendered in oil on panel in 2019 and depicts three glass jars with yellow, blue and red liquid. Th...
Category

Photorealist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Silvia Portrait Fine Art Original oil Painting One of a Kind
Located in Granada Hills, CA
Artist: Eduard Matevosyan Work: Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, One of a Kind Medium: Oil on Cardboard Year: 2025 Style: Portrait art Title: Silvia Size: 16" x 12" x 0.1'' ...
Category

Impressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

A Get Together - Painting, Mixed media on Canvas
Located in London, GB
What sets Nadira apart from her artistic peers, however, is the femininity of touch in her work. The Iraqi novelist, critic and artist, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, wrote in 1983, ‘There is ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

"My St. Barths Skies Heart" Pop Oil Painting on Wood with White Floater Frame
Located in New York, NY
Motivated by bold color and fast brushwork, we are moved by the simplicity and thick textured oil paints in these works. Shaoul’s “My Heart Collection” is a vibrant and energetic dis...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

“Spectre” (Contemporary, Cerebral, Figurative, Black Canvas Painting with Type)
Located in Paris, IDF
SPECTRE 2018 A ghostly figure with a gold halo has the words “Amissa” to his right, and “Anima Mea” to his left – hand-painted vertically in gold type. In Latin, “Amissa Anima Mea”...
Category

Abstract 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

LOOK
Located in CÓRDOBA, ES
Mixed media on paper by artist Daria Kusto Shipped well protected, unframed.
Category

Neo-Expressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Permanent Marker

Contemporary colorful abstract portrait of woman acrylic painting on paper
Located in VÉNISSIEUX, FR
This captivating artwork, "Woman in a Blue Dress", was created by Natalya Mougenot, a French artist of Russian heritage born in Kazakhstan. The piece offers an abstract portrayal of...
Category

Abstract 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Always in my Dream-original abstract landscape oil painting- modern Artwork
Located in London, Chelsea
This exceptional artwork is currently on display and available for sale at Signet Contemporary Art Gallery and online. Step into the enchanting world of "Always in my Dream" by the ...
Category

Realist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Pastel Blue", Wood, Original Figurative Portrait Painting, Affordable
Located in Deddington, GB
Jorunn Mulen was inspired by love. A chance encounter in an Italian cafe or an antique photograph at a London flea market can each become a part of my visual capture. Her poetic port...
Category

Minimalist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Wood, Acrylic

Milena in Black Figurative art Original oil Painting One of a Kind
Located in Granada Hills, CA
Artist: Eduard Matevosyan Work: Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, One of a Kind Medium: Oil on Paper Year: 2025 Style: Figurative art Title: Milena in Black Size: 16" x 12" x...
Category

Impressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

Let It Fail 3 - original abstracted figurative painting - contemporary artwork
Located in London, Chelsea
This exceptional artwork is currently on display and available for sale at Signet Contemporary Art Gallery and online. With a fearless approach to abstraction, Let It Fail 3 exudes ...
Category

Expressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs - Monumental Mythological Oil Painting
Located in Chicago, IL
The battle depicted here takes place between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous to Hippodamia. Pirithous, the king of the Lapiths, had long clashed with ...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

First Fruit -21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative Portrait, Mother and Child
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
"First Fruit" is a poignant and intimate painting that captures the essence of motherhood and protection. The title "First Fruit" symbolizes the preciousness and value of the first ...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Acrylic

Xin (Oil Painting, Symbolist, Heart, Contemporary Pop, Surreal, ~40% OFF)
Located in Kansas City, MO
Stella Jae 心 (Xin) 2024 Oil on canvas Size: 31.49 x 23.62 x inches (80 x 60 cm) Signed by hand COA provided *Framing options are available. Please inquiry. Stella J Richey is an i...
Category

Surrealist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Yellow - Orange Storm Sewer - Contemporary Figurative Oil Painting
Located in Salzburg, AT
Tomasz Bielak born in Lublin in 1967. He graduated of The Academy of Fine Arts, Painting and Graphics Design Department in Gdańsk, in 1994. He realized installation art, graphics ...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

21st century Tuscan figurative painting of mythological theme oil on canvas
Located in Florence, IT
The painting is entitled Arion of Metimna, a poet and cantor of 6th-century B.C. Greece. C., a figure straddling the historical and the mythical. In particular, depicted here is the ...
Category

Symbolist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Possum on Blue - Original Vivid Figurative Animal Painting on Canvas
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Naomi Jones's richly patterned realistic paintings focus on the preservation of vulnerable wildlife. Jones finds catharsis in painting soulful animals. Portraits of vulnerable species native to the North American landscape are painted with an illustrative sensitivity, reminding the viewer to appreciate the delicate balance of nature. Jones tries to make such wildlife, frequently living on the edges of homes and gardens, visible through paintings set among vividly patterned backgrounds. This original 36-inch square acrylic painting of a rabbit is wired and ready to hang. The sides of this artwork are painted and it does not require framing. It is signed by the artist on the front. Free local Los Angeles delivery. Affordable Continental U.S. and International shipping available. A certificate of authenticity issued by the art gallery is included. Jones is inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s attention to the natural world and Frida Kahlo’s narrative approach to painting. She is also inspired by the patterns of William Morris and has found them to be rich resources of inspiration for her lively backgrounds. Naomi Jones lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, a city known for creative activism, ecological conservation, and an artistic approach to civic spaces. Her original artworks have been exhibited and collected throughout the US. REPRESENTATION Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2019-23 Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2019 Platypus & Gnome, Wilmington, NC 2018 Scuppernong Books, Greensboro, NC 2018 Hirsch Wellness, Revolution Mills, Greensboro, NC 2018 Greensboro Project Space, Greensboro, NC SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2018 “I Spy: Art by Naomi Jones,” Art In Bloom...
Category

Folk Art 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"Houdini" (2024) By Nicolas Martin, Original Oil Painting on Panel
Located in Denver, CO
"Houdini" (2024) by Nicolas Martin is an original handmade oil painting on panel that depicts a person in a yellow hoodie looking out at an abstract and surreal scene. Nicolas Mart...
Category

Impressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

"Dead Cowboy" Contemporary Black and White Western Inspired Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Contemporary abstract figurative painting by Frisco Pete, The Wild West Art Wrangler. The work features a pair of cowboys, one pointing at a gunshot wound and the other a skeleton, s...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Caution: Falling Rocks
Located in Greenwich, CT
Caution: Falling Rocks is an acrylic painting on 24 x 24" canvas, signed 'RENÉ LALONDE' lower left and framed in a contemporary black wood frame. It is difficult to categorize the v...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

In Isolation Series VI
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This architectural wall-hanging artwork titled "In Isolation Series VI" is an original artwork by Seth Clark made of collage, charcoal, pastel, graphite, and acrylic on wood. This pi...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Wood, Paper, Charcoal, Pastel, Acrylic, Graphite

"Run Off" (2022) By Judd Mercer, Original Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Judd Mercer's (US based) "Run Off" (2022) is an original handmade oil painting depicting a small waterfall on a run off from a river. Artist bio/statement Judd Mercer is a contempo...
Category

Impressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Wood Panel, Oil

Inner Nature 4 - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative, Women on African Fabric
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. “Don’t let the n...
Category

Expressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"Autumn Mums" (2022) By Yana Beylinson, Original Oil Painting on Board
Located in Denver, CO
Yana Beylinson's (US based) "Autumn Mums" is an original, handmade still-life oil painting that depicts a vase with large white, pink, and yellow flowers. About the artist: Yana is ...
Category

American Impressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board, Paper

Statue of Liberty (huge original painting)
Located in Aventura, FL
Original acrylic painting on canvas. Hand-signed and dated in acrylic on front by Peter Max. Canvas size 96 x 48 inches. Frame size aprox 100 x 52 inches. Peter Max studio catalog...
Category

Pop Art 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Tree of life
Located in BARCELONA, ES
Simone Theelen, a dynamic and exploratory artist born in 1963. embarks on a continuous journey of creativity and discovery in her studio, where chaos an...
Category

Abstract Expressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Leather, Mixed Media

Reunited (monkeys orangutans iceberg arctic surrealist oil painting light blue)
Located in Quebec, Quebec
Superbe original painting on canvas depicting a pair of orangutans cuddling on top of a small iceberg. keywords; americana, surrealism, monkey, iceberg, vintage, oil painting, anima...
Category

Surrealist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Beach Activities' Contemporary Colourful painting of figures on a beach, waves
Located in Shrewsbury, Shropshire
'Beach Activities' is a fun and vibrant piece that just pops off the wall. It is extraordinarily unconventional and sure to inspire conversation. Miro uses contemporary techniques to...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"Where is Home?", Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Pegah Samaie's (CA based) "Where is Home?" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a reclining nude woman, wrapped in a white fabric, gently to...
Category

Photorealist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Five Gymnasts in Training
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas Signed in red, u.r. $16,000.00 + framing This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. “Bruce Sargeant is a mythic figure in the modern art movement...
Category

Realist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Love Conquers All - Omnia Vincit Amor Extra Large Abstract Investment Bold Color
Located in Cullinan, ZA
Title: Love Conquers All - Omnia Vincit Amor Extra Large Abstract Investment Bold Color Large rendition in the Unchained Expressions series. It attempts to map the road to freedom...
Category

Abstract Expressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Sweet dreams in the Moonlight -21st century interior painting with figures
Located in Nuenen, Noord Brabant
Ksenya Istomina 'Sweet Dreams in the Moonlight' 100 x 80 cm Oil on linen Painted after life, the artist always works with a real scenery. Her realistic but impressionistic paintings...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Autumn Ceremony
Located in La Canada Flintridge, CA
Artist Koko sighed lower right on the painting. Oil on canvas. Artist certificate is included.
Category

Abstract Expressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

WINTER LANDSCAPE 5 - Contemporary Atmospheric Landscape, Modern Nature Painting
Located in Salzburg, AT
A few words of the artist about his art: When i painting landscapes, I usually choose simple geometric arrangements, contrasts of verticals and levels. I juxtapose the smooth surfac...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Acrylic

"Through the Trees" Gouache Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Judd Mercer's (US based) "Through the Trees" is an gouache painting that depicts the dense brush of a forest growing with large trees Bio/artist statement: Judd Mercer is a waterc...
Category

Impressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Contemporary Transparencies Trompe l'oeil. Black Still Life. Condom Bubble
Located in FISTERRA, ES
This framed oil painting presents a transparent condom inflated into a bubble, suspended with poetic tension on a deep black background. Its small format and intimate scale draw the ...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Country Road" Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Clyde Steadman's "Country Road" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts an impasto painting of a pastoral setting.
Category

American Impressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Be Ordinary
Located in Park City, UT
CHRIS GWALTNEY is a painter from Southern California. He paints in a lush style, combining areas of abstraction with loose figurative elements. He experiments with sensuous surface...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Wurf ( Long Throw) - Contemporary Expressive Figurative Oil Painting
Located in Salzburg, AT
The inspiration for Daniel Wimmer’s art consistently stems from the human body. He is particularly fascinated by the beautiful colors of the skin and is constantly searching for intr...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"O Precious Thought" by Michael Magrin, Oil Painting, CO Landscape
Located in Denver, CO
Michael Magrin's ( US based) "O Precious Thought" is an original, handmade oil painting of a vast sky above the plains. This piece is framed in a natural float frame and is ready to ...
Category

Realist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Gypsy
Located in Westport, CT
René Romero Schuler’s expressionistic paintings depict delicate female figures that she paints using a dry-brushed, minimalist hand, leaving her subjects mostly featureless but nonet...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Bibliothèque Intime, Abstract, Library, Monochrom, oil on canvas, contemporary
Located in LANGRUNE-SUR-MER, FR
Sophie Dumont is a renowned painter whose works are a perfect blend of figuration and abstraction. Working primarily with oil on canvas, she creates emotional and dynamic composition...
Category

Abstract 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Beyond Shadows
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
"Beyond Shadows," an evocative artwork by Aba Linus, captures a profound and tender moment of connection between two women. In this piece, the two figures are depicted resting on eac...
Category

Conceptual 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

She II - Contemporary Strong Female Figure Silhouette Golden Orange Gray, 2024
Located in Kent, CT
This contemporary painting in ink, gouache and pencil on archival paper, is composed of a silhouette figurative form in costume suggesting a strong female character holding a staff. ...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Archival Ink, Gouache, Archival Paper, Pencil

Morning Pasture, 24x30 original impressionist figurative landscape
Located in Spring Lake, NJ
Set amongst the acres and acres of rolling blue cypress and kelly green colored hills and fields is the morning pasture where the dairy cows graze, feed and produce milk for the folk...
Category

Impressionist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Giant nude - Realistic oil painting, Nude, Young Polish artist
Located in Warsaw, PL
Realistic nude - an oil on canvas contemporary painting AGNIESZKA STAAK-JANCZARSKA (born in 1994) A graduate of the State Secondary School of Art of Józef Kluza in Krakow. In 2020, ...
Category

Naturalistic 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Star Girl" - Mixed media figurative female painting with text
Located in East Quogue, NY
Original mixed media painting by Adam Baranello. Size 36 x 36 in. Offered unframed. Mixed media, acrylic, spray paint on canvas. Multidisciplinary artist Adam Baranello creates mus...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Spray Paint, Acrylic

Progressive Youth - Contemporary Figurative Painting
By Tim Okamura
Located in East Quogue, NY
Beautifully rendered large-scale contemporary figurative painting of two African American women. Oil and mixed media on canvas. Size: 76 × 60 in 193 × 152.4 cm Through a mode of portrait painting that acknowledges tradition but also tries to capture the rawness and urgency of contemporary elements of street art, graffiti, and urban motifs, Tim Okamura seeks to celebrate the individual but also – and importantly – discover through his models, metaphors for greater aspects of the human condition. Okamura uses an academic-based, realist approach to painting and incorporates the mark-making and spontaneous language of spray-painted graffiti, collage, and iconographic “signage” in an attempt to weave the nuances of relationships of ethnicity, social identity, and inner-city sub-culture into his subjects’ stories, as captured on canvas. The stories that he has sought out in recent years have belonged primarily to African-American and minority subjects – in particular women – a segment of our society who he feels have been under-represented in the history of figurative painting and narrative works, and whose strength, courage and stoicism he most often finds very inspirational. Tim Okamura’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Toronto Congress Center, the Hotel Arts in Calgary, Canada, the Jiménez Colón Museum, and Standard Chartered Bank in London, England. Celebrity collectors include Uma Thurman, musicians John Mellencamp and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (The Roots), director Ben Younger and actors Bryan Greenberg, Vanessa Marcil, Annabella Sciorra, and Ethan Hawke, among others. Exhibition History: Solo Retrospective - "This Story Has Not Yet Been Told...The Work of Tim Okamura," - The Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery and Museum, The Sonia Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, University of North Carolina (2013). black history month, African American, portrait, figurative art, figurative painting, black portrait, female portrait, black women, black female, women's history, African American painting...
Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Oil

"Elvis", Denied Andy Warhol Silver & Black Pop Art Painting by Charles Lutz
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Elvis, Metallic Silver and Black Full Length Silkscreen Painting by Charles Lutz Silkscreen and silver enamel painted on vintage 1960's era linen with Artist's Denied stamp of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board. 82" x 40" inches 2010 Lutz's 2007 ''Warhol Denied'' series gained international attention by calling into question the importance of originality or lack thereof in the work of Andy Warhol. The authentication/denial process of the [[Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board]] was used to create value by submitting recreations of Warhol works for judgment with the full intention for the works to be formally marked "DENIED". The final product of the conceptual project being "officially denied" "Warhol" paintings authored by Lutz. Based on the full-length Elvis Presley paintings by Pop Artist Andy Warhol in 1964, this is likely one of his most iconic images, next to Campbell's Soup Cans and portraits of Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, and Marlon Brando. This is the rarest of the Elvis works from the series, as Lutz sourced a vintage roll of 1960's primed artist linen which was used for this one Elvis. The silkscreen, like Warhol's embraced imperfections, like the slight double image printing of the Elvis image. Lutz received his BFA in Painting and Art History from Pratt Institute and studied Human Dissection and Anatomy at Columbia University, New York. Lutz's work deals with perceptions and value structures, specifically the idea of the transference of values. Lutz's most recently presented an installation of new sculptures dealing with consumerism at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House in 2022. Lutz's 2007 Warhol Denied series received international attention calling into question the importance of originality in a work of art. The valuation process (authentication or denial) of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board was used by the artist to create value by submitting recreations of Warhol works for judgment, with the full intention for the works to be formally marked "DENIED" of their authenticity. The final product of this conceptual project is "Officially DENIED" "Warhol" paintings authored by Lutz. Later in 2013, Lutz went on to do one of his largest public installations to date. At the 100th Anniversary of Marcel Duchamp's groundbreaking and controversial Armory Show, Lutz was asked by the curator of Armory Focus: USA and former Director of The Andy Warhol Museum, Eric Shiner to create a site-specific installation representing the US. The installation "Babel" (based on Pieter Bruegel's famous painting) consisted of 1500 cardboard replicas of Warhol's Brillo Box (Stockholm Type) stacked 20 ft tall. All 1500 boxes were then given to the public freely, debasing the Brillo Box as an art commodity by removing its value, in addition to debasing its willing consumers. Elvis was "the greatest cultural force in the Twentieth Century. He introduced the beat to everything, and he changed everything - music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution." Leonard Bernstein in: Exh. Cat., Boston, The Institute of Contemporary Art and traveling, Elvis + Marilyn 2 x Immortal, 1994-97, p. 9. Andy Warhol "quite simply changed how we all see the world around us." Kynaston McShine in: Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art (and traveling), Andy Warhol: Retrospective, 1996, p. 13. In the summer of 1963 Elvis Presley was just twenty-eight years old but already a legend of his time. During the preceding seven years - since Heartbreak Hotel became the biggest-selling record of 1956 - he had recorded seventeen number-one singles and seven number-one albums; starred in eleven films, countless national TV appearances, tours, and live performances; earned tens of millions of dollars; and was instantly recognized across the globe. The undisputed King of Rock and Roll, Elvis was the biggest star alive: a cultural phenomenon of mythic proportions apparently no longer confined to the man alone. As the eminent composer Leonard Bernstein put it, Elvis was "the greatest cultural force in the Twentieth Century. He introduced the beat to everything, and he changed everything - music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution." (Exh. Cat., Boston, The Institute of Contemporary Art (and traveling), Elvis + Marilyn 2 x Immortal, 1994, p. 9). In the summer of 1963 Andy Warhol was thirty-four years old and transforming the parameters of visual culture in America. The focus of his signature silkscreen was leveled at subjects he brilliantly perceived as the most important concerns of day to day contemporary life. By appropriating the visual vernacular of consumer culture and multiplying readymade images gleaned from newspapers, magazines and advertising, he turned a mirror onto the contradictions behind quotidian existence. Above all else he was obsessed with themes of celebrity and death, executing intensely multifaceted and complex works in series that continue to resound with universal relevance. His unprecedented practice re-presented how society viewed itself, simultaneously reinforcing and radically undermining the collective psychology of popular culture. He epitomized the tide of change that swept through the 1960s and, as Kynaston McShine has concisely stated, "He quite simply changed how we all see the world around us." (Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art (and traveling), Andy Warhol: Retrospective, 1996, p. 13). Thus in the summer of 1963 there could not have been a more perfect alignment of artist and subject than Warhol and Elvis. Perhaps the most famous depiction of the biggest superstar by the original superstar artist, Double Elvis is a historic paradigm of Pop Art from a breath-taking moment in Art History. With devastating immediacy and efficiency, Warhol's canvas seduces our view with a stunning aesthetic and confronts our experience with a sophisticated array of thematic content. Not only is there all of Elvis, man and legend, but we are also presented with the specter of death, staring at us down the barrel of a gun; and the lone cowboy, confronting the great frontier and the American dream. The spray painted silver screen denotes the glamour and glory of cinema, the artificiality of fantasy, and the idea of a mirror that reveals our own reality back to us. At the same time, Warhol's replication of Elvis' image as a double stands as metaphor for the means and effects of mass-media and its inherent potential to manipulate and condition. These thematic strata function in simultaneous concert to deliver a work of phenomenal conceptual brilliance. The portrait of a man, the portrait of a country, and the portrait of a time, Double Elvis is an indisputable icon for our age. The source image was a publicity still for the movie Flaming Star, starring Presley as the character Pacer Burton and directed by Don Siegel in 1960. The film was originally intended as a vehicle for Marlon Brando and produced by David Weisbart, who had made James Dean's Rebel Without a Cause in 1955. It was the first of two Twentieth Century Fox productions Presley was contracted to by his manager Colonel Tom Parker, determined to make the singer a movie star. For the compulsive movie-fan Warhol, the sheer power of Elvis wielding a revolver as the reluctant gunslinger presented the zenith of subject matter: ultimate celebrity invested with the ultimate power to issue death. Warhol's Elvis is physically larger than life and wears the expression that catapulted him into a million hearts: inexplicably and all at once fearful and resolute; vulnerable and predatory; innocent and explicit. It is the look of David Halberstam's observation that "Elvis Presley was an American original, the rebel as mother's boy, alternately sweet and sullen, ready on demand to be either respectable or rebellious." (Exh. Cat., Boston, Op. Cit.). Indeed, amidst Warhol's art there is only one other subject whose character so ethereally defies categorization and who so acutely conflated total fame with the inevitability of mortality. In Warhol's work, only Elvis and Marilyn harness a pictorial magnetism of mythic proportions. With Marilyn Monroe, whom Warhol depicted immediately after her premature death in August 1962, he discovered a memento mori to unite the obsessions driving his career: glamour, beauty, fame, and death. As a star of the silver screen and the definitive international sex symbol, Marilyn epitomized the unattainable essence of superstardom that Warhol craved. Just as there was no question in 1963, there remains still none today that the male equivalent to Marilyn is Elvis. However, despite his famous 1968 adage, "If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings" Warhol's fascination held purpose far beyond mere idolization. As Rainer Crone explained in 1970, Warhol was interested in movie stars above all else because they were "people who could justifiably be seen as the nearest thing to representatives of mass culture." (Rainer Crone, Andy Warhol, New York, 1970, p. 22). Warhol was singularly drawn to the idols of Elvis and Marilyn, as he was to Marlon Brando and Liz Taylor, because he implicitly understood the concurrence between the projection of their image and the projection of their brand. Some years after the present work he wrote, "In the early days of film, fans used to idolize a whole star - they would take one star and love everything about that star...So you should always have a product that's not just 'you.' An actress should count up her plays and movies and a model should count up her photographs and a writer should count up his words and an artist should count up his pictures so you always know exactly what you're worth, and you don't get stuck thinking your product is you and your fame, and your aura." (Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), San Diego, New York and London, 1977, p. 86). The film stars of the late 1950s and early 1960s that most obsessed Warhol embodied tectonic shifts in wider cultural and societal values. In 1971 John Coplans argued that Warhol was transfixed by the subject of Elvis, and to a lesser degree by Marlon Brando and James Dean, because they were "authentically creative, and not merely products of Hollywood's fantasy or commercialism. All three had originative lives, and therefore are strong personalities; all three raised - at one level or another - important questions as to the quality of life in America and the nature of its freedoms. Implicit in their attitude is a condemnation of society and its ways; they project an image of the necessity for the individual to search for his own future, not passively, but aggressively, with commitment and passion." (John Coplans, "Andy Warhol and Elvis Presley," Studio International, vol. 181, no. 930, February 1971, pp. 51-52). However, while Warhol unquestionably adored these idols as transformative heralds, the suggestion that his paintings of Elvis are uncritical of a generated public image issued for mass consumption fails to appreciate the acuity of his specific re-presentation of the King. As with Marilyn, Liz and Marlon, Warhol instinctively understood the Elvis brand as an industrialized construct, designed for mass consumption like a Coca-Cola bottle or Campbell's Soup Can, and radically revealed it as a precisely composed non-reality. Of course Elvis offered Warhol the biggest brand of all, and he accentuates this by choosing a manifestly contrived version of Elvis-the-film-star, rather than the raw genius of Elvis as performing Rock n' Roll pioneer. A few months prior to the present work he had silkscreened Elvis' brooding visage in a small cycle of works based on a simple headshot, including Red Elvis, but the absence of context in these works minimizes the critical potency that is so present in Double Elvis. With Double Elvis we are confronted by a figure so familiar to us, yet playing a role relating to violence and death that is entirely at odds with the associations entrenched with the singer's renowned love songs. Although we may think this version of Elvis makes sense, it is the overwhelming power of the totemic cipher of the Elvis legend that means we might not even question why he is pointing a gun rather than a guitar. Thus Warhol interrogates the limits of the popular visual vernacular, posing vital questions of collective perception and cognition in contemporary society. The notion that this self-determinedly iconic painting shows an artificial paradigm is compounded by Warhol's enlistment of a reflective metallic surface, a treatment he reserved for his most important portraits of Elvis, Marilyn, Marlon and Liz. Here the synthetic chemical silver paint becomes allegory for the manufacture of the Elvis product, and directly anticipates the artist's 1968 statement: "Everything is sort of artificial. I don't know where the artificial stops and the real starts. The artificial fascinates me, the bright and shiny..." (Artist quoted in Exh. Cat., Stockholm, Moderna Museet and traveling, Andy Warhol, 1968, n.p.). At the same time, the shiny silver paint of Double Elvis unquestionably denotes the glamour of the silver screen and the attractive fantasies of cinema. At exactly this time in the summer of 1963 Warhol bought his first movie camera and produced his first films such as Sleep, Kiss and Tarzan and Jane Regained. Although the absence of plot or narrative convention in these movies was a purposely anti-Hollywood gesture, the unattainability of classic movie stardom still held profound allure and resonance for Warhol. He remained a celebrity and film fanatic, and it was exactly this addiction that so qualifies his sensational critique of the industry machinations behind the stars he adored. Double Elvis was executed less than eighteen months after he had created 32 Campbell's Soup Cans for his immortal show at the Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles in July and August 1962, and which is famously housed in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In the intervening period he had produced the series Dollar Bills, Coca-Cola Bottles, Suicides, Disasters, and Silver Electric Chairs, all in addition to the portrait cycles of Marilyn and Liz. This explosive outpouring of astonishing artistic invention stands as definitive testament to Warhol's aptitude to seize the most potent images of his time. He recognized that not only the product itself, but also the means of consumption - in this case society's abandoned deification of Elvis - was symptomatic of a new mode of existence. As Heiner Bastian has precisely summated: "the aura of utterly affirmative idolization already stands as a stereotype of a 'consumer-goods style' expression of an American way of life and of the mass-media culture of a nation." (Exh. Cat., Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie (and traveling), Andy Warhol: Retrospective, 2001, p. 28). For Warhol, the act of image replication and multiplication anaesthetized the effect of the subject, and while he had undermined the potency of wealth in 200 One Dollar Bills, and cheated the terror of death by electric chair in Silver Disaster # 6, the proliferation of Elvis here emasculates a prefabricated version of character authenticity. Here the cinematic quality of variety within unity is apparent in the degrees to which Presley's arm and gun become less visible to the left of the canvas. The sense of movement is further enhanced by a sense of receding depth as the viewer is presented with the ghost like repetition of the figure in the left of the canvas, a 'jump effect' in the screening process that would be replicated in the multiple Elvis paintings. The seriality of the image heightens the sense of a moving image, displayed for us like the unwinding of a reel of film. Elvis was central to Warhol's legendary solo exhibition organized by Irving Blum at the Ferus Gallery in the Fall of 1963 - the show having been conceived around the Elvis paintings since at least May of that year. A well-known installation photograph shows the present work prominently presented among the constant reel of canvases, designed to fill the space as a filmic diorama. While the Elvis canvases...
Category

Pop Art 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Enamel

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Pop Art 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

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Category

Abstract 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board, Glass

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Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

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Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

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Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Mixed Media

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Category

Realist 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

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Category

Contemporary 21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

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