9 photographs, gelatin silver print on paper
Portraits
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/andy-warhol-2121" aria-label="More by Andy Warhol" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Andy Warhol</a>
Grace Jones
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
actor
adults
arts and entertainment
black
clothing and personal items
coat
emotions, concepts and ideas
ethnicity
formal qualities
fur
glove
hat, cap
individuals: female
Jones, Grace
leisure and pastimes
music and entertainment
music, pop
named individuals
objects
people
photographic
portraits
repetition
scarf
singer
woman
work and occupations
<p>This work consists of nine identical black and white photographs of the singer and actress Grace Jones (born 1948), stitched together with thread into a three by three grid. Excess thread is left hanging at the joins of the images. In the photographs Jones appears against a pale background and wears a dark peaked cap, a light-coloured soft scarf, a fur coat with a high plush collar, and a leather studded glove on her right hand, which grips the bottom of her collar. She looks straight towards the camera; only her face is uncovered. The image is tightly cropped so that Jones’s face and chest occupy the majority of the picture, restricting the sense of space.</p>
paper unique 9 photographs gelatin silver print
12 March 2009 – 8 November 2009
2009-11-08
12 March 2009 – 8 November 2009
2009-11-08
2009-03-12
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/
2009-03-12
ARTIST ROOMS Andy Warhol
Collection based display
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
24 September 2011 – 26 February 2012
2012-02-26
24 September 2011 – 26 February 2012
2012-02-26
2011-09-24
De La Warr Pavilion (Bexhill on Sea, UK)
http://www.dlwp.com/
2011-09-24
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
2 June 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2 June 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-06-02
Ferens Art Gallery (Hull, UK)
http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/museumcollections
2012-06-02
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Warhol
Loan-out
12 December 2020 – 27 March 2022
2022-03-27
12 December 2020 – 13 June 2021
2021-06-13
2020-12-12
Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany)
17 July 2021 – 24 October 2021
2021-10-24
2021-07-17
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
3 December 2021 – 27 March 2022
2022-03-27
2021-12-03
Aspen Art Museum (Aspen, USA)
http://www.aspenartmuseum.org
2020-12-12
Warhol 2020
Loan-out
15 March 2025 – 29 June 2025
2025-06-29
15 March 2025 – 29 June 2025
2025-06-29
2025-03-15
MK Gallery (Milton Keynes, UK)
2025-03-15
Andy Warhol
Loan-out
Grace Jones
frame: 1313 × 1073 × 26 mm confirmed
<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>This work consists of nine identical black and white photographs of the singer and actress Grace Jones (born 1948), stitched together with thread into a three by three grid. Excess thread is left hanging at the joins of the images. In the photographs Jones appears against a pale background and wears a dark peaked cap, a light-coloured soft scarf, a fur coat with a high plush collar, and a leather studded glove on her right hand, which grips the bottom of her collar. She looks straight towards the camera; only her face is uncovered. The image is tightly cropped so that Jones’s face and chest occupy the majority of the picture, restricting the sense of space.</p>
<p>
<i>Grace Jones</i> is one of a number of stitched photograph works by Warhol in the ARTIST ROOMS collection. Another of these also features Grace Jones, <i>Grace Being Painted by Keith </i>1986 (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-grace-being-painted-by-keith-ar00291" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00291</span></a>), in which graffiti artist Keith Haring is shown decorating Jones’s body with his signature markings. During the 1980s Warhol made just over five hundred stitched photographs, as well as an edition of 120 smaller sewn pieces depicting skeletons that were produced for <i>Parkett</i> magazine in 1987. Each of these works consists of a number of identical photographic prints (four, six, nine or twelve) that were stitched together using a machine. Almost all the sewing for these works was carried out by Warhol’s assistant Michele Loud, a former fashion student. Warhol’s stitched photographs depict a wide range of subjects including signs, objects, celebrities, nude models and buildings.</p>
<p>Having started her career as a successful runway model, Jones began recording music in the late 1970s. Her albums include <i>Warm Leatherette</i> (1980), <i>Nightclubbing</i> (1981), <i>Living My Life</i> (1982) and <i>Slave to the Rhythm</i> (1985). In collaboration with the graphic designer and illustrator Jean-Paul Goude, Jones created a striking self-image, which included a bold flat-top haircut, angular make-up, outlandish costumes, a marked androgyny. She has also acted in a number of films, including <i>Conan the Destroyer</i> (1984), <i>A View to a Kill</i> (1985), and <i>Vamp</i> (1986). Jones’s fame arguably peaked around the mid-1980s at the time when Warhol created his stitched photographs of her.</p>
<p>Jones features in several different works by Warhol. The photograph which forms the basis of this work was taken on 23 July 1984. Warhol recounts taking the image in his diaries:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>Went down to meet Grace Jones at the office and we waited for three hours. Benjamin went out and made calls and finally tracked her down at Bergdorf’s getting a fur coat out of the Revillon cooler. She spends all her money on fur coats. She says it’s all she cares about, and that she doesn’t care about money, just furs ... She buys them and stores them all in the cooler. I was taking pictures of Grace for <i>Vogue</i>, and we were interviewing her for the cover of <i>Interview</i>. But anyway, she was really late, and we were putting her down for hours and then suddenly she appeared and it was all, ‘Oh darling!’</blockquote>
<blockquote>(Warhol 1992, p.743.)</blockquote>
<p>Warhol took other photographs of Jones during the 1980s, as well as producing screenprints of her. The artist and singer also socialised together: photographer Ronald Galella took a picture of the two of them together at Studio 54 in 1978 attending a party for the premiere of the film <i>Grease</i>. In his diaries, Warhol recalls how he and Jones rented a plane and flew together to the wedding of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver in April 1986.</p>
<p>This stitched photograph of Grace Jones can be compared to Warhol’s screenprints in which an image of a celebrity (for example Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, or Jackie Kennedy) is reproduced identically, or nearly identically, multiple times, often in a grid format. However, Warhol’s screenprints of stars made in the 1960s, such as <i>Marilyn Diptych</i> 1962 (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-marilyn-diptych-t03093" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T03093</span></a>), were made using found and appropriated images, whereas his comparable works from the 1980s – including screenprints and stitched photographs – were based on photographs taken by the artist himself.</p>
<p>A colour Polaroid photograph of Jones wearing exactly the same clothes as in this stitched work was published in Vincent Fremont’s book of Warhol’s Polaroids.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Vincent Fremont, <i>Andy Warhol Polaroids 1971–1986</i>, New York 1992.<br/>Andy Warhol, <i>The Andy Warhol Diaries</i>, ed. by Pat Hackett, London 1992.<br/>William V. Ganis, <i>Andy Warhol’s Serial Photography</i>, Cambridge 2004.</p>
<p>Glyn Davis<br/>The University of Edinburgh<br/>February 2013</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS</i>.</p>
</div>

Summary
2021-08-06T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Following the gift of a camera in 1976, Warhol began to photographically document every aspect of his life from the people he met to graffiti on the streets. In 1986 he developed some of these images into what became known as his stitched photographs. Created by sewing several identical images together, these works are indebted to his early screenprints in their use of repetition and grid formation. This work is composed of nine images of the singer and actress Grace Jones who was Warhol’s muse on many occasions. The same year as he completed this work Warhol also produced screenprinted paintings of the star.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actor adults arts and entertainment black clothing and personal items coat emotions, concepts and ideas ethnicity formal qualities fur glove hat, cap individuals: female Jones, Grace leisure and pastimes music and entertainment music, pop named individuals objects people photographic portraits repetition scarf singer woman work and occupations