Andy Warhol Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (F & S II.226 - 235) For Sale

Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century is a series of ten screenprints published by the artist in 1980. In the same year, these portraits were exhibited at the Jewish Museum in New York. The ten portraits include Franz Kafka, Gertrude Stein, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Louis Brandeis, George Gershwin, The Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, Sarah Bernhardt and Sigmund Freud. 

In a typical Warholian fashion, the subjects of Ten Portraits are realised in mixed media – illustration, the use of coloured artist papers that give the appearance of collage, and reappropriated photographs. The final process, of screenprinting or silkscreening, allows Warhol to finally consolidate his portrait with stenciled plates that are then used to impress ink on the surface. Though all employ a similar process, the difference seen in each example is astonishing: each portrait appears to be its own kaleidoscopic rendition of the sitter’s inner world. Indeed Warhol’s Jewish figures form a vast interdisciplinary landscape across politics (Golda Meir), theatre (Sarah Bernhardt and the Marx Brothers), psychology (Sigmund Freud) and literature (Franz Kafka), so the distinction with which Warhol paints his sitters is in keeping with their accomplishments. 

Though the portraits do not feature any external objects or indications of their professions, Warhol seems to subtly imbue them within colour and form. For example, Kafka appears entirely in a spectrum of light to dark blue: the author was known for keeping diaries known as ‘The Blue Octavo Notebooks’, and furthermore had a plaintive sensibility that might be best symbolised in blue. Similarly, hand-drawn chaotic spirals appear to emit from composer George Greshwin’s head, as if to mirror the innovative musical rhythms for which he was known in jazz and in classical music.  

As a series, Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century has had a polarised reception, at least when it was first released. The idea for the portraits was conceived by Warhol’s dealer, Ronald Feldman, and the subjects were chosen by Susan Morganstein, art director of the Jewish Community Centre in Washington. Yet, when the works were exhibited in New York, some responses were critical, considering the works commercial and even vulgar. As a series of portraits of an ethnoreligious group that has faced persecution, it would be hard to imagine a scenario where, painted by a non-jew (Warhol came from a Catholic family) they would not be subject to critique. However it is worth considering that Feldman, Warhol’s dealer, was himself Jewish, as were many patrons and friends of Warhol. At their most fundamental level, Ten Portraits pays homage to the Jewish intelligentsia in a way that few artists captured except Warhol. Since their initial exhibition, Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, cementing their international recognition as historical portraits of important Jewish figures.