Unidentified Woman

© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Unidentified Woman

Currently not on view

Unidentified Woman,

1980

Andy Warhol, 1928–1987; born Pittsburgh, PA; died New York, NY; active New York
2008-202
Warhol spent the 1970s and ’80s taking thousands of Polaroid portraits on his Big Shot camera. His portrait sittings were routine: the sitter was invited to a lunch gathering of film, fashion, art, and society guests. Once the guests had left, Warhol had his female sitter apply white makeup to her face and chest and replace her top with a cotton wrap. Next, he would pose her head and shoulders in front of a white wall. Warhol tried to make all his subjects—celebrities and friends alike—look like movie stars. These thousands of portraits served as photographic image sources for Warhol’s silkscreens. They also remind us of photography’s power to fictionalize, idealize, and manufacture identity.

Information

Title
Unidentified Woman
Dates

1980

Maker
Andy Warhol
Medium
Polaroid
Dimensions
image: 9.5 x 7.3 cm. (3 3/4 x 2 7/8 in.) sheet: 11.4 x 8.6 cm. (4 1/2 x 3 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Object Number
2008-202
Place Made

North America, United States, New York, Manhattan, New York

Marks/Labels/Seals
Blindstamp below image, lower right: © ANDY WARHOL
Culture
American
Type
internal dye diffusion transfer process, photographs, color photographs
Techniques
internal dye diffusion transfer process
Subject
figures (representations), cosmetics, lipsticks, portraits, red, women, pale orange yellow, blue, white (color), black

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