Acrylic paint and silkscreen on canvas
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>
SelfPortrait Strangulation
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: expressive
adults
artist, multi-media
arts and entertainment
attacking
body
colour
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
head / face
horror
man
named individuals
people
photographic
portraits
repetition
self-portraits
Warhol, Andy
work and occupations
<p>This staged portrait of an attack hovers between absurd and sinister. Always extraordinarily conscious of his self-image, here Warhol adopts a not altogether convincing expression of surprise. His role as victim sits oddly with his position as creator of the image. This sense of simultaneously asserting and relinquishing control is echoed by the contrast between the sharp silkscreen reproduction of six identical photo-booth style images, and the apparently instinctive application of coloured paint. The title suggests that the genre of self-portraiture itself may be the intended victim.</p><p><em>Gallery label, March 2010</em></p>
painting acrylic paint silkscreen canvas
28 March 2009 – 21 September 2009
2009-09-21
28 March 2009 – 21 September 2009
2009-09-21
2009-03-28
Wolverhampton Art Gallery (Wolverhampton, UK)
http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk
2009-03-28
ARTIST ROOMS 2009: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
23 March 2010 – 30 January 2011
2011-01-30
23 March 2010 – 30 January 2011
2011-01-30
2010-03-23
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2010-03-23
Andy Warhol Part II
Collection based display
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
2011-03-27
Southampton City Art Gallery (Southampton, UK)
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts
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
11 April 2012 – 1 December 2012
2012-12-01
11 April 2012 – 1 December 2012
2012-12-01
2012-04-11
Graves Art Gallery (Sheffield, UK)
http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/coresite/html/graves.asp
2012-04-11
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Warhol Self Portraits
Loan-out
19 March 2016 – 12 June 2016
2016-06-12
19 March 2016 – 12 June 2016
2016-06-12
2016-03-19
Firstsite (Colchester, UK)
http://www.firstsite.uk.net/
2016-03-19
ARTIST ROOMS 2016: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
19 November 2016 – 16 April 2017
2017-04-16
19 November 2016 – 16 April 2017
2017-04-16
2016-11-19
Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.whitworth.man.ac.uk
2016-11-19
ARTIST ROOMS 2016: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
10 June 2017 – 2 September 2017
2017-09-02
10 June 2017 – 2 September 2017
2017-09-02
2017-06-10
Burgh Hall (Dunoon, UK)
2017-06-10
ARTIST ROOMS 2017: Andy 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
Self-Portrait Strangulation
supports: 408 × 331 × 18 mm
frame: 1321 × 743 × 62 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>
<i>Self-Portrait (Strangulation)</i> comprises six silk-screened canvases assembled in a vertical grid of three pairs, each silk-screened in vertical bands of pink, red, yellow, blue, and grey. Horizontal smears of paint are also apparent across the surface of each canvas. The single monochrome panel, placed on the left side of the central row, is dark-toned, painted with shades of grey that partially obscure the image of Warhol’s face as he undergoes ‘self-strangulation’.</p>
<p>The six canvases were made in Warhol’s New York studio, known as the Factory, on unstretched canvas, rolled out flat on the studio floor. For these works Warhol used photo-silkscreens and employed an assistant named Rupert Smith to help with screen-printing. Synthetic polymer paint, a fast drying alternative to oil paint, was used as the background onto which the image was screen-printed.</p>
<p>The work is both ambiguous and ironic. The subject matter – death by strangulation – might be compared with Warhol’s <i>Death and Disaster </i>series of 1962–3 in which he enlarged and displayed images of violence, notably car crashes or press photographs of police dogs attacking protestors. However, the images here suggest a staged and potentially comical act, similar in concept to the earlier self-relating work <i>Self-Portrait (Being Punched) </i>1963–6 (The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh).</p>
<p>Warhol famously proclaimed that ‘in the future, everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes’ but lived with the pressures of celebrity life in the public imagination for much of his career. This peaked when on 3 June 1968 Valerie Solanis, a part-time extra in Warhol’s films, appeared at The Factory and shot him. Although he survived, the near-death experience had a profound effect on Warhol and the theme of his own mortality featured prominently – even if sometimes facetiously – in much of his late work (see, for example, <i>Self-Portrait with Skull</i> 1978, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-self-portrait-with-skull-ar00610" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00610</span></a>).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Andy Warhol, <i>The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again</i>, New York 1977.<br/>Kynaston McShine (ed.), <i>Andy Warhol: A Retrospective, </i>exhibition catalogue, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1989.<br/>Roland Waspe (ed.), <i>Andy Warhol: Self Portraits</i>, trans. by Bernhard Geyer and John S. Sutherland, Ostfildern-Ruit 2004.</p>
<p>Oliver Lurz<br/>October 2011</p>
</div>

Summary
2012-06-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Warhol drew and painted self-portraits since he was a teenager. He was dissatisfied, to the point of obsession, with the way he looked and was very careful with the way he both presented himself artistically and marketed his image. In these six works (displayed as a group) he shows himself seemingly in a life-threatening situation. The hands of an unseen assailant strangle him, while his eyes are directed heavenward rather like a martyred saint. The predominantly dark colours, some partly obscuring his head, as well as the ‘expressionist’ brushwork, give the paintings a distinctly ominous feel. Warhol was shot and critically injured in 1968 and, although death was a recurring theme in his work since the early 1960s, this experience heightened his fears about dying.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: expressive adults artist, multi-media arts and entertainment attacking body colour emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities head / face horror man named individuals people photographic portraits repetition self-portraits Warhol, Andy work and occupations