Andy Warhol’s ‘Sixteen Jackies’
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy 60 years ago shocked all corners of the world and continues to haunt the American psyche today. As the world began to process the overwhelming loss, the public face of mourning was Jackie Kennedy, the grieving widow who emerged as a symbol of strength and humanity. In the aftermath, Andy Warhol, within the context of his seminal ‘Death and Disaster’ series, began to sift through the flood of images in newspapers and magazines, selecting this powerful press image taken during JFK’s funeral procession, concentrating intently on Jackie’s stoic facial expression beneath the dark organdie veil.
Part of an elite group of paintings composed of 16 canvases that were assembled in this arrangement by Warhol himself, this extremely rare example is the only composition in this format executed in a single color palette, recalling both the black-and-white colorway of newsprint and slides from a projector. By isolating her image, then further abstracting it through the silkscreen process and repeating it, Warhol not only tells the story of one of the darkest days in modern American history, but also examines the power of images in modern society, in a classically Warholian way.
Browse this work and explore the entire auction online now, on view tomorrow at our Rockefeller Center galleries!
20th Century Evening Sale | New York | 9 November
3d
