colour screenprint

Artwork date: 1980
Signature details: signed and numbered 190/200 in pencil bottom left
Edition: from an edition of 200 + 30APs
Literature: Feldman, F. and Schellmann, J. (1989). Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 - 1987. 229

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sheet size: 102 x 81.5 cm; framed size: 120.5 x 100 x 3.5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Johannesburg.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

By the late 1970s, Andy Warhol had already cemented his status as one of the most influential artists of his time. The Factory, Warhol’s aluminium foil-and-silver-paint-lined studio on 47^th Street Manhattan, was filled with frenetic energy – flashes of camera bulbs, the hum of silkscreen machines; a creative playground and a crucible for ideas, where the avant-garde collided with celebrity culture, high and low art converged, and where Warhol, ever the alchemist, transformed the mundane into the extraordinary. Having immortalised figures like Marilyn Monroe, Mick Jagger, and Mao Zedong, Warhol’s fascination with fame, identity, and repetition was well established. Yet, as the decade waned, he set his sights on a different kind of iconography.

In 1979, at the suggestion of his friend and gallerist Ronald Feldman, Warhol turned his lens toward a new pantheon of luminaries. The result was Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, a striking portfolio featuring visionaries from politics, music, philosophy, and science – individuals who had left an indelible mark on history. Never one to shy away from irreverence, Warhol nicknamed the project Jewish Geniuses. The series featured Albert Einstein’s wild halo of hair, Sigmund Freud’s penetrating gaze, Sarah Bernhardt’s dramatic poise, and the manic wit of the Marx Brothers. Rendered in Warhol’s signature silkscreened aesthetic, the portraits shimmered with bold contrasts and fractured lines, as if the subjects themselves were caught in the flicker of a television screen. Culminating in an exhibition in 1980 at the Jewish Museum in New York, the series – limited to just 200 editions ­– captivated audiences. Later, Warhol reimagined these prints as acrylic screenprints on canvas, further solidifying their place in his oeuvre.

The series, however, did not emerge unscathed from the critical fray. It aroused antagonism, igniting debates over its intent and execution. Unlike Warhol’s previous works, which revelled in repetition, Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century marked a departure in both content and structure: ten distinct figures, each a standalone subject rather than a single face multiplied in variations of neon and shadow. More unexpected was Warhol’s embrace of history – gone were the ephemeral pop culture icons ‘of the moment’ that usually defined his practice, replaced instead by minds that had shaped the fabric of modern thought. Some critics accused him of opportunism, of commodifying Jewish identity for profit. Others saw the series as an exaltation, a tribute to intellectual and artistic legacy.

Albert Einstein’s portrait remains one of the most arresting in the series. The physicist’s face, familiar from grainy black-and-white photographs, is reborn in Warhol’s palette. Einstein, a revolutionary thinker who reshaped humanity’s understanding of time and space, was an ideal subject for Warhol’s exploration of cultural immortality. His theory of relativity altered the face of modern physics, yet his impact extended far beyond academia – he became a symbol of intellectual curiosity, pacifism, and humanitarianism. His playful, eccentric persona, captured in candid images with unkempt hair and a mischievous smile, made him one of the most recognisable figures of the 20th century. Warhol’s printmaking process – rooted in extensive proofing and experimentation with colour – allowed him to manipulate the visual impact of the image, creating a work that is simultaneously familiar and strikingly modern. The layering of ink and the careful balance of abstraction and realism lend the portrait a vitality that captures not just Einstein’s likeness, but his enduring influence on the world.

Amy Carrington

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• This is the South African auction debut for Andy Warhol’s Albert Einstein.

• Another example from this edition of 200 sold for an impressive R2 331 160 in New York in October 2023.

• Aspire Art currently holds the South African auction record for Andy Warhol, with Grevy’s Zebra (from the Endangered Species series) selling for R1 024 200 in 2020.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, Tate Modern, London; Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Centre Pompidou, Paris and The Mugrabi Collection, New York.