Self-Portrait

1964

Andy Warhol
American, 1928-1987

Warhol based his first painted self-portrait on a photo booth photograph, and the work showcases Warhol’s ability to manipulate his persona itself as an artistic medium. As he admitted a few years later, “I’d prefer to remain a mystery, I never like to give my background and, anyway, I make it all up different every time I’m asked.” This work marked a starting point for Warhol’s career-long engagement with the construction of identity, especially as it pertained to crafting his public persona.

Status: On View, Gallery 296
Department: Contemporary Art

Artist: Andy Warhol
Title: Self-Portrait
Place: United States (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1964
Medium: Acrylic, silver paint, and silkscreen ink on linen
Dimensions: 50.8 × 40.6 cm (20 × 16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Edlis Neeson Collection
Reference Number: 2015.126
Copyright: © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Donna De Salvo, with essays by Jessica Beck, Okwui Enwezour, Trevor Fairbrother, Hendrik Folkerts, Branden W. Joseph, Barbara Kruger, Glenn Ligon, Michael Sanchez, and Lynne Tillman, and a conversation between Bill Horrigan and Bruce Jenkins, Andy Warhol–From A to B and Back Again, exh. cat. (Whitney Museum of American Art/Yale University Press, 2018), pp. 232 (color ill.); 390.

London, National Portrait Gallery, Pop Art Portraits, Oct. 7, 2007–Jan. 20, 2008, cat. 39; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Feb. 23–June 8, 2008.
Athens, Byzantine and Christian Museum, Warhol Icon: The Creation of an Image, Oct. 7, 2009– Jan. 10, 2010, no cat. no.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Andy Warhol–From A to B and Back Again, Nov. 12, 2018–Mar. 31, 2019, no cat. no.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 19–Sept. 2, 2019; Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 20, 2019–Jan. 26, 2020.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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