21st Century and Contemporary Portrait Paintings

Nasser Ovissi, (Iranian, Born 1934) "Safavid Lady" oil on canvas painting Very fine quality painting by Persian Artist Nasser Ovissi who is considered t...

Oil pastel on paper by artist Daria Kusto Shipped well protected, unframed Curated by Art Reserve & Angel Rivas We can do commissioned work of any technique, style and size, cont...

The painting depicts a proud and confident black African woman with her afro hair as her crowning glory. The intricate and detailed portrayal of her features and hair are rendered in...

Lucha" is a poignant and evocative artwork that delves deep into the complexities of human emotions, interpersonal relationships, and the struggle to cope with personal challenges. T...

Untitled III by Lídia Masllorens. Lídia Masllorens is attracted by a moderate abstraction, which allows the observer to interpret the painting with precision and to perceive implici...

Amy Devlin portrays people, animals, or nature in her works. But what really matters to her is light and water, which she wants to capture in the form of a physical memory. By following her passion for paint, she tries to represent reality and thereby express her feeling in the expressive colors she uses. Her paintings show a fascination with the movement and texture of water, which is depicted in vivid colors in her works. Her hybrid painting style combines realism with impressionism in a very interesting way, providing a different view of the world and our memories of it. Devlin loves the unexpected, looks at things from a crazy angle and imagines. Since 2014 she mainly paints underwater portraits...

Experience the captivating allure of "Human Cubist Portrait 3," a mesmerizing artwork that takes inspiration from the innovative and visionary style of Cubism. This vibrant and thoug...

Mark Schwartz's "M.Y. 3" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a portrait of a female model gazing downward as her black hair blends into the darkness of the background.

Cherubim with flowers - Oil on canvas cm.80x100 by Giulio Di Sotto, Italy, 2002. Gold leaf gilded wooden frame available on request This wonderful oil on canvas represents two putti...

Suzy Smith's "Lady in Red" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a feminine figure, in a formal red gown holding a cigarette. About the Artis...

Faces Abstract Collection by Irena Orlov Introducing "Abstract Cubist Portrait - Human Faces Abstract Collection - HFC 29" - Limited Edition Textured Canvas Print "Abstract Cubist ...

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 (Issued by the Gal...

Michael Carson's (US based) "Portrait of Britt Daniel" is an original, handmade oil painting. About the Artist: Mike Carson is a Minneapolis painter, and graduate of the Minneapolis...

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 (Issued by the Gal...

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. About Artist Top...

Daniela Astone Inside 60 x 50 cm Oil on canvas Daniela Astone works and lives in Florence. For years she was a teacher on the famous Florence Art Academy. Since 2022 she fulltime works as a painter. Her works are all around the world in great collections. For our exhibition 'A Female Gaze' Daniela Astone made a series of paintings where the female aspect of her life is the main subject. This series contains a series of seven paintings where you see a dancing couple. Female- male couples and male-male/ female-female couples. The Currator of Galerie Bonnard says about the paintings by Daniela Astone: The classical structure and narrative paintings show a technique that is special. Her style is virtuoso and her subjects narrative. The keys are loose and subtle. For this artist, standing in front of a painting means...

Currency #254 is a thought-provoking piece from Natasha Lelenco’s Currencies series, featuring a finely detailed male profile painted in acr...

The paintings of Aleix Font (Sabadell, Spain, 1984) function as a narrative between the collective and the individual world, exploring space and its interactions with concepts such as inequality, emptiness, borders, balance, misalignment, or periphery. Details: Title: Sky Before The Storm Medium: Acrylic and Spray Painting on Papyrus...

Appearance defines what you are made of, being black, made of dressing, our way of approaching, respect, and how we react to things are what we inherit from our four fathers and we are happy and proud of who we are. Black is beautiful, I love black. 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 (Issue by The Galley) About Artist Ajenifuja Abiodun...

Tania Rivilis One thousand and one nights 50 x 100 cm Oilpaint on canvas Tania Rivilis (b. 1986) 2022 winner of the 'William Locke Price' ( £ 30.000 ) from the Royal Society of P...

Suchitra Bhosle's "Romantic Spring" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a couple relaxing in dappled sun light. About the Artist: Suchitra Bhosle is an India-born artist based in California. Suchitra paints in a representational realistic style drawing inspiration from 20th century naturalist painters. She embraces impressionism to depict everyday representational scenes. Suchitra excels at capturing and expressing the mood of her subjects, often in contemplative classical settings. This lends a timeless yet intimate quality to her paintings. Though primarily a portrait and figurative painter, she has recently been painting urban and architectural subjects. Suchitra is represented in leading fine art galleries across USA including Santa Fe, Washington D.C., Carmel and Houston. Her paintings have won awards at international juried shows hosted by The Portrait Society of America, Oil Painters of America and American Impressionist Society.

This artwork drops you into a surreal moment: two figures black outfits stand in the middle of nowhere, under a blue sky sprinkled with just enough clouds to keep it interesting. One...

By Martha Ochoa Oil on Canvas Canvas Size: 48" x 32" Framed Size: 55.5" x 40.5" This lovely painting by Martha Ochoa is from the Cusco tradition. The Cusco School was an artistic tradition that first emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries in Cusco, Peru, blending indigenous and European baroque artistic styles. It is renowned for its catholic iconography, which often feature vibrant colors, elaborate ornamentation, and blended elements combining Catholic and native symbolism. This painting portrays the Virgen del Carmen...

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube. This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Elie HATUNGIMAN...

Oil on canvas Karine Bartoli was born in 1971 in Ajaccio. She enrolled at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Marseille where she graduated in 1997. Since then she has ...

In this oil painting, I sought to blend realism with impressionistic touches to capture a quietly intimate moment between a woman and a cat. Her enigmatic gaze and the soft, tactile ...

The art "John Lennon" is Limited Edition of 25 canvas geclee prints on canvas in size 18″X24″. The print is covered by resin layer which protects the vibrancy of color pigments. Afte...

Inspired by her background in fashion, artist Lindsey McCord creates vibrant portraits that encapsulate the confidence that comes with the fun of being stylish and chic. Her figures ...

Elegant outdoor dining, in the forefront, composed of three women and a man, seated by a French Versailles-style lake: urns, manicured trees, and water lilies, giving an air of tranquility and repose. By the Lake...

Sometimes I wonder, was it even there - that past life? If there are no photos, there is no evidence. In this artwork, I've captured a moment suspended in time, where nostalgia meets...

Amy Devlin portrays people, animals, or nature in her works. But what really matters to her is light and water, which she wants to capture in the form of a physical memory. By following her passion for paint, she tries to represent reality and thereby express her feeling in the expressive colors she uses. Her paintings show a fascination with the movement and texture of water, which is depicted in vivid colors in her works. Her hybrid painting style combines realism with impressionism in a very interesting way, providing a different view of the world and our memories of it. Devlin loves the unexpected, looks at things from a crazy angle and imagines. Since 2014 she mainly paints underwater portraits...

"2/3" by Conrado López is a delicate yet expressive 2024 artwork, utilizing acrylic, gold leaf and oil on a canvas sized at 15.75 x 15.75 in (40 x 40cm). This piece is a prime exa...

Zoa Ace's (US based) "Trust" is an original, handmade mixed media collage that depicts a cat in a dress with a lace collar and several birds. The piece is a collage on wood and is re...

This painting executed in the Byzantine style is a portrait of St. Nicholas. In the Greek Orthodox Church, St. Nicholas served as an archbishop of the early Church. This portrait is...

Oil on canvas Karine Bartoli was born in 1971 in Ajaccio. She enrolled at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Marseille where she graduated in 1997. Since then she has ...

This exceptional artwork is currently on display and available for sale at Signet Contemporary Art Gallery and online. In Flutter of Silk, Tom Searles captures the ethereal grace of...

This painting depicts an impressionistic and abstract portrait of George Washington. The thick brush strokes and fun marks create an atmosphere reminiscent of the impressionists from...

Michael Carson's (US based) "Red Tights" (2024) is an original, handmade oil painting. About the Artist: Mike Carson is a Minneapolis painter, and graduate of the Minneapolis Colleg...

Anne Siems has created this artwork by painting and drawing over an archival print on thick 100% cotton fiber paper. All archival materials. Unframed size: 8.5x11 inches Frame size: 15x12x1 inch ANNE SIEMS (b. 1965, Germany) Artist Statement I was born in Berlin, Germany. From 1969 to 1971 I lived near Buenos Aires, Argentina. My first extended stay in the US was as an exchange student in 1986. Then in 1991, after finishing my MFA in Berlin, I moved to Seattle, WA. My work has moved from semi-abstract, room-filling plant and insect drawings...

Chidy Wayne (b. 1981, Spain) is an artist based in Barcelona. Over the years, he has established himself as a recognized figure in the art world, developing a personal artistic langu...

"Last Night" is an original oil on linen artwork by contemporary artist Matt Talbert, completed in the year 2023. This piece measures 10 x 8 inches (25.40 x 20.32 cm), and with its f...

Nadezda's beautiful new oil on panel painting "Red Shoes" (2024) is a surrealist portrait of a young woman wearing a Russian dress, posed impossibly among a strange arrangement of objects at varying perspectives. Among these are living things like a spirit resting on the bed, and a small humanoid figure wearing a mask. Nadezda is a painter, sculptor, photographer, and concept artist. Her artwork is focused on narratives carefully gathered from the hidden chambers of her imagination as well as live theater-inspired work with actors, dancers, and models. Like a quilt stitched of poetic realities, Nadezda’s mysterious world defies the mundane. With a non-linear creative process flowing between different media, the artist explores various vantage points in her creations. This dynamic approach inspires her mind’s eye to focus on the worlds within and evoke an uninterrupted, creative transmission which is then channeled through her paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, writing and film. SOLO EXHIBITIONS: September 2024 Once There Was, Once There Wasn’t // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA, USA May 2024 Siren’s Heart // Haven Gallery, Long Island, NY, USA February 2022 Secret Hallway // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA, USA July 2021 The Great Scale of Little Things // Galleria D’Arte Piero Della Francesca, Arezzo, Italy February 2021 A Place To Dream // SHOH Gallery, Berkley, CA, USA July 2019 Pins & Petals // Haven Gallery, Long Island, NY, USA August 2018 Lukomorye // Spoke Art, San Francisco, CA, USA February 2018 Nightmares & Lullabies // Haven Gallery, Long Island, NY, USA June 2017 Fly-By-Night // Haven Gallery, Long Island, NY, USA MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS: March 2024 Miradas Femeninas // group exhibition, Museu Europeu d’Art Modern (MEAM), Barcelona, Spain FAIRS: April 2020 Art Market San Francisco // SFADA x Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA, USA February 2020 LA Art Show // Abend Gallery, Los Angeles, CA July 2019 Art Market Hamptons // Haven Gallery at Bridgehampton Museum of Art, NY October 2018 Moniker Art Fair // Spoke Art, London, UK July 2017 Art Market Hamptons // Haven Gallery at Bridgehampton Museum of Art, NY SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS: June 2024 Portrait Show XII: Myth // Modern Eden, San Francisco, USA March, 2024 BAA Teachers Show 2024 // BAA Gallery, Barcelona, Spain January, 2024 AKSK // Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles, USA September 2023 Reverie // Modern Eden, San Francisco, USA August 2023 Mass // Modern Eden, San Francisco, USA October 2023 Bacchus // Modern Eden, San Francisco, USA September 2023 Harvest // Modern Eden, San Francisco, March 2023 Secret Longings // Corey Helford Gallery x Beautiful Bizarre, Los Angeles, CA December 2022 Yule // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA November 2022 Halcyon Days // Beautiful Bizarre x Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA October 2022 Danse Macabre // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA September 2022 Totem // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA August 2022 Mighty // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA June 2022 X Annual Portrait Exhibition // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA April 2022 100 Trees // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA October 2021 Lore // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA June 2021 Moleskine Project X // Spoke Art, San Francisco, CA June 2021 Portrait Show IX // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA November 2020 Art Collector Starter Kit VII // Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles, CA October 2020 Midnight Garden // Beautiful Bizarre x Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA July 2020 The Art of Quarantine // SHOH Gallery, Berkley, CA May 2020 Unjust Contentment // Beinart Gallery, Brunswick, Australia March 2020 Contemporary Figuration // Abend Gallery, Denver, CO November 2019 Paintguide x Thinkspace Projects // Thinkspace Projects, Los Angeles, CA November 2019 Annual Holiday Miniatures Show // Abend Gallery, Denver, CO November 2019 Esprit De Corps // Modern Eden x Haven Gallery, CA and NY June 2019 Moleskine Project VIII // Spoke Art SF, CA June 2019 Muse, SHOH Gallery // Berkley CA June 2019 Small Works, Beinart Gallery // Australia May 2019 Gaia Reborn // Beautiful Bizarre at Museum of Urban Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany March 2019 Femme, Spoke Art + Juxtapoz, NY January 2019 Music Box // Haven Gallery, Northport, NY December 2018 Solstice Blue...

This artwork elegantly blends classic and contemporary elements, depicting a young woman in a stylish black outfit holding a phone to her ear. She stands against an endless blue sky...

Original painting on canvas. Hand signed on front by the artist. Studio stamp on verso. Artwork is in excellent condition. Peter Max Studio Certificate of Authenticity included. A...

Tania Rivilis Red Velvet 50 x 50 cm framed (included in price) 53,5 x 53,5 cm Oilpaint on canvas Tania Rivilis (b. 1986) 2022 winner of the 'William Locke Price' ( £ 30.000 ) fro...

The Beauty Within Us" is a compelling narrative series of paintings that celebrates the unique and diverse beauty of Black hair, serving as a powerful symbol of identity, heritage, a...

Every man has a dream of becoming something shortly, thereby picturing what it would look like, where it will happen, and how it will happen. Many people don’t even have the idea of ...

'Poems in paint' Flip Gaasendam tells with his paintings where he likes, there, in those places, he paints. His recognizable loose touch, carefully chosen colors, spherical landscapes, interiors and portraits have been part of the permanent collection of Galerie Bonnard for years. We read somewhere that Flip Gaasendam has a 'Flip Gaasendam veil' on his subjects. That is, we believe, a good description of the works of this highly esteemed artist. "Poetry in paintings" is also a statement that fits with the work and can be read in the numerous descriptions that can be found about the artist. The artist himself says that he wants to put life to a halt in his work. He says the following about his way of working:  'Because I am an aquarellist from home, I learned how to paint transparently in tone and tone. I also use that in my oil paints. My work is classified as post-impressionistic. When I paint, however, I forget everything about art history. I like a lot of things, from Alma Tadema to Andrew Wyeth, but I am a painter of today. It therefore goes too far to say that I consciously go back to the past. I work unorthodox. I do not apply the paint with a fixed method. I brush with wipes, use the palette knife, work with my hands, etc. That my palette is heavily controlled by the color green, is because I often make a painting blond with cobalt and ocher. My themes are often nostalgic and romantic. as a child, I thought the morning mist was beautiful, and with the light effect in the Groninger station restoration it is just as well. ' The modest artist can rightly be called one of the forerunners of the new...

PORTRAIT OF UGO FOSCOLO - Oil on canvas cm.50x40, Antonio Jannone, Italy, 2002. this beautiful portrait of the Italian poet Ugo Foscolo is the painter's pe...

Samuel S.Hoskins Statement on Winter: Delving into the symbolism of winter, I painted a figure dressed in black, embracing the harvest of autumn. In my perspective, winter signifies a moment to take stock of one's life, withdrawing into a state of reflection. It's a time to gaze ahead, anticipating the promises that spring holds for renewal and growth. As a graduate of The Florence Academy of Art and a devoted oil painter, Samuel Hoskins...

Artist: Eduard Matevosyan Work: Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, One of a Kind Medium: Oil on Cardboard Year: 2025 Style: Portrait Art, Title: Woman in Ochre Size: 20" x 16...

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...

Artist: Eduard Matevosyan Work: Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, One of a Kind Medium: Oil on Cardboard Year: 2025 Style: Portrait art Title: Portrait Size: 13.5" x 12" x 0...

Brian O'Neill's (US based) "Emergence" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a floral robe slipping from a female figure's shoulders and expos...

"Winged Genius", oil on canvas, 70x110cm, 27.5×43.5in Winged Genius is a fantastic character, a mythological creature, a male figure with birds’ wings, a guardian spirit, a demigod. ...

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube. This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Adebayo Taiwo, ...

My original master reproduction of Johannes Vermeer's portrait of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" was created using the same process that Vermeer used to paint his famous Dutch Mas...