Marx Brothers
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? The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2009

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Marx Brothers 1982

On Tour On tour at UK / HULL / FERENS ART GALLERY

  • Artist Rooms
Warhol?s portrait of the Marx brothers is from the series `Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century?. It was the first collaboration with the gallery owner Robert Feldman, whom Warhol continued to work with throughout the 1980s. The series of ?Jewish Geniuses? (as Warhol referred to the project), featured portraits of a selection of notable Jews such as Albert Einstein and Sarah Bernhardt. As they were all deceased Warhol had to source images from archival material. The image he used here was a film still taken from the 1946 film `A Night in Casablanca?. Throughout the series Warhol employs abstract, collage-like blocks of colour which contrast with the photographic print. When the series was first shown at the Jewish Museum in 1980, it received mixed responses.

Glossary Open

Abstract art

Art in which there is no attempt to represent anything existing in the world, particularly used of the 20th century onwards. `Abstraction? refers to the process of making images that may in part derive from the visible world but which are reduced to basic formal elements.

Collage

An image constructed from found materials, such as photographs, paper or fabric, glued to a surface, sometimes with additional painted or drawn elements. It is an art form particularly associated with Dada and Surrealism.

Abstract art, Collage

Details

  • Acc. No. AR00446
  • Medium Lithograph
  • Size 72.40 x 58.40 cm
  • Credit ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Acquired jointly through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008

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