ANDY WARHOL, LOUIS BRANDEIS (F. & S. II.230), TEN PORTRAITS OF JEWS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY SERIES, SIGNED SCREEN PRINT, 1980
Louis Brandeis (F. & S. II.230) is a screen print from Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century series (1980), a set of prints that features some of the most prominent figures of the 20th century, all of Jewish origin. This print features the eponymous American lawyer who was the first Jew to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court of Justice in 1916 and became known as ‘the people’s attorney’.
The Ten Portraits Of Jews Of The Twentieth Century series was the idea of Warhol’s dealer, Ronald Feldmen who, along with Susan Feldman, the art gallery director of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Washington, came up with the list of ten names. Warhol’s growing reputation as a ‘business artist’ played into the fact that the artist’s investment in his subjects was their fame, and not necessarily their accomplishments. Stripped of any historical context, rendered in vivid colour, Warhol immortalises Louis Brandeis into a 1980s Pop icon.
Warhol employs his classic screen print method used for his iconic portraits, silk screening an instantly recognisable photograph over applied colour and tracing hand drawn lines over the photograph’s outlines. This Louis Brandeis (F. & S. 230) print is broken up into geometric blocks of red, blue, pink and yellow colour creating tension between abstraction and photographic representation.
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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.
