Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-mapplethorpe-11413" aria-label="More by Robert Mapplethorpe" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Robert Mapplethorpe</a>
Andy Warhol
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
actions: postures and motions
adults
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clothing and personal items
emotions, concepts and ideas
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hands clasped
individuals: male
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Warhol, Andy
work and occupations
<p>In this black and white portrait photograph the artist Andy Warhol is seen standing up leaning his right shoulder against a white wall. The artist stares directly at the camera with a somewhat blank expression, his mouth slightly ajar, as he rubs his hands in front of himself in a nervous fashion. Warhol wears a turtleneck jumper underneath a black suit jacket, a pair of jeans into which his jumper is tucked, and his customary white wig. He stands in front of a plain grey backdrop which extends to the right edge of the print, while the white wall that he leans against is shot in line with the picture plane so that it appears as a flat vertical band occupying almost a quarter of the composition.</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver
26 April 2009 – 27 June 2009
2009-06-27
26 April 2009 – 27 June 2009
2009-06-27
2009-04-26
Inverness Museum & Art Gallery (Inverness, UK)
http://www.invernessmuseum.com
2009-04-26
ARTIST ROOMS 2009: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
25 September 2010 – 21 November 2010
2010-11-21
25 September 2010 – 21 November 2010
2010-11-21
2010-09-25
Towner (Eastbourne, UK)
http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/
2010-09-25
ARTIST ROOMS 2010: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
2011-03-27
John Hansard Gallery (Southampton, UK)
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~hansard/
2011-03-27
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
9 May 2014 – 26 October 2014
2014-10-26
9 May 2016 – 26 October 2016
2016-10-26
2016-05-09
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2014-05-09
Mapplethorpe Self Portraits and Portraits
Collection based display
8 August 2015 – 7 November 2015
2015-11-07
8 August 2015 – 7 November 2015
2015-11-07
2015-08-08
Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Aberystwyth, UK)
2015-08-08
ARTIST ROOMS 2015: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
Andy Warhol
support: 476 × 377 mm
frame: 745 × 618 × 37 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>In this black and white portrait photograph the artist Andy Warhol is seen standing up leaning his right shoulder against a white wall. The artist stares directly at the camera with a somewhat blank expression, his mouth slightly ajar, as he rubs his hands in front of himself in a nervous fashion. Warhol wears a turtleneck jumper underneath a black suit jacket, a pair of jeans into which his jumper is tucked, and his customary white wig. He stands in front of a plain grey backdrop which extends to the right edge of the print, while the white wall that he leans against is shot in line with the picture plane so that it appears as a flat vertical band occupying almost a quarter of the composition.</p>
<p>By the time this image was taken in 1983 Mapplethorpe and Warhol had already met on several occasions. The photographer took four portrait photographs of Warhol during the artist’s lifetime, all of which are in the ARTIST ROOMS collection, including another photograph taken during this same session in 1983 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mapplethorpe-andy-warhol-ar00219" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00219</span></a>). In another portrait Warhol assumes a pose similar to that adopted in this image, in which he faces the camera with a blank expression, with his hands forming a V shape in front of him (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mapplethorpe-andy-warhol-ar00220" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00220</span></a>). Making his sitters feel comfortable while being photographed was important to Mapplethorpe. He allowed his subjects to create a role in front of the camera, which Warhol does here with his blunt stare and awkward pose.</p>
<p>While Warhol is captured in this image with a characteristic stark gaze, Mapplethorpe sensed a softening of the artist’s rigid exterior in a conversation with Warhol near the time of his death:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>I think he was finally becoming much more human somehow and he was voicing what he really thought as opposed to what people would react to. I think that was sort of one thing that I was really shocked about, that he died at a moment when I think he was finally sort of feeling comfortable somehow.</blockquote>
<blockquote>(Mapplethorpe in <i>Arena: Robert Mapplethorpe, </i>dir. by Nigel Finch, BBC television documentary, 18 March 1988.)</blockquote>
<p>Mapplethorpe was influenced by Warhol early in his career, and his move to Manhattan in 1969 was partially motivated by his desire to befriend Warhol. The singer Patti Smith noted that he ‘loved Andy Warhol and considered him our most important living artist. It was as close to hero worship as he ever got’ (Smith 2010, p.69). However, this admiration was also met with caution; Mapplethorpe’s biographer Patricia Morrisroe notes that the photographer soon realised that Warhol ‘wasn’t exactly the mentor type – people helped Warhol, not the other way around’ (Morrisroe 1995 p.140).</p>
<p>In the same year that this photograph was taken Warhol created a black and white silkscreen portrait of Mapplethorpe (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-robert-mapplethorpe-ar00232" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00232</span></a>). While the photographer may have been wary of Warhol he still held him in high regard, with Morrisroe describing the silkscreen portrait which hung in his living room on West 23rd Street as the ‘ultimate symbol’ of Mapplethorpe’s success (Morrisroe 1995, p.297).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Gary Indiana and Robert Mapplethorpe, ‘Robert Mapplethorpe’, <i>BOMB</i>,<i> </i>no.22, winter 1988, pp.18–23.<br/>Patricia Morrisroe, <i>Mapplethorpe. A Biography</i>,<i> </i>London 1995.<br/>Patti Smith, <i>Just Kids</i>,<i> </i>London 2010. </p>
<p>Susan Mc Ateer<br/>University of Edinburgh<br/>June 2013</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS</i>.</p>
</div>

Summary
2014-06-13T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was one of the most influential artists of the late twentieth century. Indeed, Mapplethorpe had idolised him while he was studying at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in the late 1960s. However, by 1973 when they showed together at the Gotham Book Mart in New York, they were distrustful of each other. In 1983 they photographed each other. Mapplethorpe’s photographs of Warhol show him with his customary blank expression. In this particular work, Mapplethorpe has emphasised Warhol’s loneliness by pressing him up against a wall and leaving an empty space on the right. He rubs his hands together rather nervously.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults artist, multi-media arts and entertainment clothing and personal items emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities hands clasped individuals: male jacket jumper man named individuals objects people photographic portraits standing Warhol, Andy work and occupations