Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

Apr 2, 2016–Apr 2, 2017

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Price of Fame

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In the 1960s, Andy Warhol began to crack the glossy veneer of celebrity culture in portraits of figures like Jackie Kennedy, whose glamour was intertwined with pathos and fragility. Warhol evoked mass media’s transformation of the individual into a consumable icon, a path followed more recently by Anne Collier, Elizabeth Peyton, and Richard Prince. Many of the works in this gallery examine the fantasy of stardom and expose its darker side—the flashbulb’s glare, the menacing intrusions of paparazzi, and the voracious appetites of audiences raised on a diet of pop culture and political disillusionment. Others explore how the glut of media imagery leads ordinary people to internalize the rituals of glamour and fandom by appropriating everything from costumes and makeup to the artificial poses of film stills and headshots. These works may be seen as confirming the insidious influence of the mass-media machine or may point to the liberating possibilities of casting oneself as a star.

Below is a selection of works from Price of Fame.

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Patti Smith, 1975

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989), Patti Smith, 1975. Two gelatin silver prints mounted on board, overall: 20 × 20 5/8 in. (50.8 × 52.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Inc. 97.103.1a–b 1975 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

Please note: This work is no longer on view.


These photographs of poet and singer-songwriter Patti Smith were shot in a Greenwich Village apartment by her close friend Robert Mapplethorpe. They capture a moment shortly before the two artists rose from relative obscurity and poverty to international acclaim—a period documented in Smith’s 2010 memoir, Just Kids. The image on the right served as the cover of Horses, her debut album. Recalling the shoot, Smith has said, “The only rule we had was, Robert told me if I wore a white shirt, not to wear a dirty one . . . I got my favorite ribbon and my favorite jacket, and he took about twelve pictures. By the eighth one, he said, 'I got it.'"

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On the Hour

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Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

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