ANDY WARHOL, JACQUELINE KENNEDY III (F. & S. II.15), JACKIE KENNEDY SERIES, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT, EDITION OF 200, 1965
Jacqueline Kennedy III (F. & S. II.15), is a screen print from Andy Warhol’s Jackie Kennedy series from 1965. The print shows a set of four press photographs of Kennedy, that Warhol had collected in the months following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, left largely untouched by the artist in their Original, grainy black and white form.
Warhol was famed for depicting historical events by appropriating mass-media images, enlarging them, adding colour and thus elevating these images to the realm of high art. His depictions of Jackie Kennedy, following the assassination of her husband President John F Kennedy, are one of the earliest examples of this kind of subject in the artist’s oeuvre.Apparently unmoved by the event itself, Warhol was more interested in the images of the grieving Jackie Kennedy, that were widely represented in newspapers at the time.
Jacqueline Kennedy III (F. & S. II.15) shows iconic photographs of Kennedy just before and after the death of her husband and Warhol has chosen to tightly crop them around her face. The changing expressions create a narrative timeline of the tragic event however Warhol contradicts this with his rendering of stark contrasts, flattened form and removal of the photograph’s contexts to produce a more abstract print, both in its appearance and moral weight.
Find out more about Jackie Kennedy by Andy Warhol.
ABOUT ANDY WARHOL
Andy Warhol (born Andrew Warhola) is a name synonymous with the celebrity culture and mass consumerism which coloured the boulevards of New York City in the Post World War II era. Born into a working class immigrant family in the urban landscape around the bustling metropolis, Warhol’s early life was characterised by a climb up the capitalist rungs of society.
The artist himself noted, “buying is more American than thinking, and I’m as American as they come”, this quote came to demarcate Warhol’s artistic practice as he embraced the commodification of the American Dream. The Pop artist’s beginnings in the business sector gave him the practical skill set to experiment with a more commercial approach to art throughout his career, particularly with regards to screen printing. Read more about Andy Warhol.
