Pop Art Portrait Paintings

Original painting by Daria Kusto. Acrylic markers on paper. The magic flow reality... The painting will be shipped directly from Thailand – safely and promptly."

Original painting by Daria Kusto. Acrylic markers on paper. The magic flow reality... The painting will be shipped directly from Thailand – safely and promptly."

This portrait of Grace Jones is inspired by the remarkable Jamaican-born singer, model, and actress, who has been a beacon of bravery and self-expression for women worldwide. Known f...

Elise Remender captures the romantic glamour of a bygone era in her contemporary figurative paintings that blend classical fine art and contemporary pop realism. Fantasy, mid-century fashion, and the glamour of travel and coastal living inform soft brush strokes and abstracted beauty; reminiscent of vintage advertisements and dusted sunlight. This original 37-inch square acrylic on canvas painting evokes a sense of delight and playfully nods at summery vintage aesthetics. It is signed by Remender on the front bottom right corner of the artwork. The sides are painted as a continuation of the front and it does not require framing. Free delivery within the local Los Angeles area. Affordable Continental U.S. and international shipping available. This artwork includes a certificate of authenticity issued by the gallery. Remender grew up in Arizona and is based in Southern California, but she has traveled all over the world gaining inspiration for her work. Her most recent series, Bathing Beauties, which captures the human form and abstracts it through light and reflection, was inspired by the vintage elegance and history of Southeast Asia’s historic hotel pools and gardens. It evokes a bygone era when Ernest Hemingway and Jackie O. were among the clientele. “I’m a bit of an old soul and there is a sense of elegance and beauty that has been lost in modern-day society, and I seek to recapture this essence in my work. I’m creating a sort of fantasy world of luxury, leisure, and old Hollywood glamour.” Her work has appeared in galleries in the US and Asia and in GQ Magazine, Architectural Digest, Dwell, California Home, People, among many other publications. Her paintings hang in luxury properties including The Ritz Carlton San Francisco, The Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas, and Hilton properties across the United States, as well as in the homes of celebrity collectors including Ryan Seacrest and Kylie Jenner. REPRESENTATION: Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, CA EXHIBITIONS: 2023 Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2021 “The Beauty Myth”, Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 “All American Inspired,” Merritt Gallery/Renaissance Fine Arts, PA, MD “At the Shore,” Eisenhauer Gallery, Edgartown, MA “Color in Motion,” Eisenhauer Gallery, Edgartown, MA “Having a Ball,” Jules Place, Boston, MA Meritt Gallery, Renaissance Fine Arts, PA, MD Studio E. Gallery, Palm Beach, FL 2017 “Distant Memories,” 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA Merrit Gallery, Renaissance Fine Arts, PA, MD “Holiday Gift Guide...

Original oil painting on canvas. Hand signed and dated lower front; hand signed, titled and date on verso by Mark Kostabi. Canvas Size: 23.5 x 17.75 x 1.5 inches. Frame Size: 25 x...

This striking acrylic painting by Moldovan-Spanish artist Natasha Lelenco features a surreal anthropomorphic portrait constructed from lush green leaves and blooming yellow daisies, blending botanical precision with symbolic intensity. The central figure’s face, composed entirely of flowers, is both haunting and tender, while a pink tongue and tiny plastic toy soldier create a poignant contrast that challenges the viewer’s perception of innocence, violence, and the natural world. Set against a softly gradated sky-blue background, the painting invites reflection on ecological fragility and the absurdity of human conflict. Part of the acclaimed “Fetishes” series, this work is inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s botanical portraits, reinterpreted with contemporary urgency. Lelenco’s painting critiques war and environmental destruction through a visual language that is as poetic as it is unsettling. The toy soldier, perched delicately on a green leaf-arm, acts as a miniature symbol of violence embedded in play, questioning the narratives we inherit and enact. The piece was originally commissioned for Imaxinaria, Mostra Internacional de Ilustración Contemporánea in Galicia (Spain) and remains one of the most iconic works of the series. Medium: Acrylic on board Dimensions: [Insert exact dimensions] Year: 2022 Framing: Painted edges, ready to hang, no frame needed Signed by the artist Keywords: Acrylic botanical portrait, Anti-war painting, Contemporary Arcimboldo style...

Edition 5 print with Diamond Dust - Price on request Marilyn Monroe with face mask. JAY-C – the pseudonym of this innovative young artist known for his subversive use of familiar fi...

Original and unique artwork by Russell Young. Acrylic paint and enamel screen print on linen, unframed dimensions 62 x 48 inches, 2008, from the series "Fame + Shame". Bright and viv...

Original and unique artwork by Russell Young. Acrylic paint, enamel and diamond dust screen print on linen, unframed dimensions 48 x 62 inches, 2011, from the series "Guns". Hand sig...

From the artist: "The symbol of the Apple has held significance for humans throughout recorded history. In the bible it represents the forbidden. It was used by Newton to explain gra...

Virginie Schroeder is an innovative artist based in Quebec, Canada. She puts in play lines, circles and other geometric forms to create works with subjects that are not immediately v...

One of the originators of the Western pop art movement, Billy Schenck incorporates techniques from photorealism with a pop art sensibility to both exalt and poke fun at images of the...

This distinctive acrylic painting by Natasha Lelenco from her acclaimed series Ancestor Clones presents a captivating portrait characterized by a symbolic face composed entirely of s...

Vintage American modernist portrait of iconic artist Peter Max. Signed. Framed. Original oil on canvas.

Original painting by Daria Kusto. Acrylic markers on paper. The magic flow reality... The painting will be shipped directly from Thailand – safely and promptly."

URthe1 is a provocative art series that delves into the tension between individuality and the multiplicity of the human condition. Through a collection of striking portraits, the series examines how humans, often celebrated for their uniqueness, are simultaneously shaped by cultural, social, and biological replication. Each piece carries a subtle sarcasm, challenging the viewer to question the authenticity of identity. With its vibrant palettes, playful naïve style, and distinctive figures, URthe1 invites viewers to reflect on the paradox of being "one of a kind" in a world where we are all, to some extent, copies. The series is both a celebration and a critique of humanity, offering a visual narrative that is as thought-provoking as it is visually captivating. "Ancestor Clone #11" is a unique artwork from Natasha Lelenco's series You Are The One. This Small Format Oval Framed Painting...

One of the originators of the Western pop art movement, Billy Schenck incorporates techniques from photorealism with a pop art sensibility to both exalt and poke fun at images of the...

This piece depicts iconic Logos with vintage news paper clippings from the mid century. We find Rolex lower right, with other Americana imagery through out. Celebrating icons from th...

Generation Pop is my vision of a generation that lives through colors, emotions, and the spirit of play. The brightness of childhood fused with the pulse of pop art creates a fresh, ...

Contemporary figurative acrylic on canvas painting by Polish artist Joanna Woyda. Painting is in minimalistic, pop art style. The artwork depicts a boy standing in the water. He is v...

Shepard Fairey Jasper Johns Red, 2010 Silkscreen and mixed media collage on wood. Hand signed twice - on both the front and the back 23 3/4 × 17 1/2 inches Frame included Edition HPM...

Tiger Portrait Pop Art with Floral Mandala in Chains by British Urban Graffiti Artist, Chris Pegg, using red, pink & turquoise. Chris Pegg is a self-taught Street Artist producing ar...

JAMES WOLANIN "Summer Love" Acrylic & Gloss Varnish on Panel 36 x 36 inches ______________________ James Wolanin’s paintings transport the viewer to an effervescent, candy coated w...

Original painting by Daria Kusto. Acrylic markers on paper. The magic flow reality... The painting will be shipped directly from Thailand – safely and promptly."

This vibrant acrylic painting by Natasha Lelenco, part of her on process Ancestor Clones series, features a striking symbolic face depicted in intense shades of green. The portrait's...

Artist: Peter Max, German/American (1937) Title: Profile Year: 1986 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, signed u.r. Size: 40 in. x 30 in. (101.6 cm x 76.2 cm) Frame Size: 49.5 x 39.5 inches

J. C. Morey is a Spanish artist from the province of Alicante. He was born into a family of artists and connected to the art world since the 60s, which gave him the opportunity from ...

This piece depicts iconic Logos with vintage news paper clippings from the mid century. We find Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis lower left, with other Americana imagery through out. Celeb...

The gallery is pleased to offer a work by Ceravolo, one of The Hampton's most sort after urban Pop artists who's work is collected by Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Alice Cooper among ...

This piece depicts famous British model Kate Moss from a Fall 2013 ad campaign with Stuart Weitzman during the Milan Fashion Week while featuring Kate Moss swaggering to Nancy Sinatr...

"Triple Elvis" (Denied) Silkscreen Painting by Charles Lutz Silkscreen and silver enamel paint on canvas with Artist's Denied stamp of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board. 82 x 72" inches 2010 This important example was shown alongside works by Warhol in a two-person show "Warhol Revisited (Charles Lutz / Andy Warhol)" at UAB Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts in 2024. 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...

This original framed figurative painting by Natasha Lelenco blends surreal portraiture with botanical elements, capturing the essence of nature, transf...

One of the originators of the Western pop art movement, Billy Schenck incorporates techniques from photorealism with a pop art sensibility to both exalt and poke fun at images of the...

Round male portrait in blue and ochre, featuring Japanese text and a sculptural wood format that reflects on identity, journey, and value. Currency #240 is an acrylic painting on a ...

Ricardo Goyo was born in Barcelona in 1972. He began his artistic career studying in France at the National School of Fine Arts in Nice. There he had the opportunity to meet, work, a...

Vibrant multimedia artworks incorporate reflective mediums and thick textures in Kate Tova's work. Colors splash across the page melding into flourishes of sequins, rhinestones, and ...

From the artist: "This still life is meant to be initially read on two levels, which is the aesthetic quality of the photo realistic nuts and the humor of the title also referring to...

Contemporary pop art inspired pixelated rendition of a detail from Leonardo da Vinci's renowned painting, the "Mona Lisa." Similar to pointillism, the individual hand-painted blocks...

“Flowers and Worms” (2021) is a botanical portrait painting from the Fetiches series by Moldovan-born artist Natasha Lelenco. Executed in acrylic on canvas and set within an integrat...

Original painting by Daria Kusto. Acrylic markers on paper. The magic flow reality... The painting will be shipped directly from Thailand – safely and promptly."

Contemporary figurative acrylic on canvas painting by Polish artist Joanna Woyda. Painting is in minimalistic, pop art style. The artwork depicts a girl standing on the shoreline, sh...

Unique acrylic painting and silkscreen on canvas. Hand signed and dated by Andy Warhol on verso. Martin Lawrence provenance label on verso. Canvas size 20 x 20 inches. The artwor...

Original acrylic painting on canvas. Hand-signed in acrylic on front by Peter Max. Peter Max studio catalog number on canvas side. Canvas size 60 x 60 inches. Canvas is stretched....

Artist: Jack Graves III (American, 1988-) Title: "Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt)" Series: Icon *Signed by Graves lower left. It is also signed, dated, and titled on verso Year: 2025 Medium...

Queen Elizabeth II. Painted in a modern style with brushes and a palette knife, it is Pop Art, expressionism, and realism. A bright palette of colors was used: yellow, green, pink, a...

Zero in Blue by Peter Max, German/American (1937) Date: 1985 Acrylic on Canvas, signed u.r. Size: 24 in. x 18 in. (60.96 cm x 45.72 cm) Frame Size: 26.5 x 20.5 inches

Contemporary figurative acrylic on canvas painting by Polish artist Joanna Woyda. Painting is in minimalistic, pop art style. The artwork depicts a girl standing on the shoreline, sh...

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...

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