Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

Apr 2, 2016–Apr 2, 2017

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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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A work by Martha Rosler. First Lady Pat Nixon is posed in an interior of the White House. A harrowing image of a figure in agony is collaged over the mantle behind her.

This photograph is part of Martha Rosler’s House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home series, which addressed the disconnect between American middle-class aspirations and the war in Vietnam. Most of the works in the series integrate graphic images of the conflict into tranquil domestic interiors. Here, however, Rosler features First Lady Pat Nixon in her 1969 Inaugural Ball dress in the White House’s Yellow Oval Room. Behind her, in lieu of a painting, hangs a still from the bloody conclusion of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, which was inspired by the same violent media images from Vietnam. Nixon’s gracious smile stands in sharp contrast to actress Faye Dunaway’s anguished expression as she is pummeled by bullets.

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Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

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First Lady (Pat Nixon), 1969–72

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Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

Price of Fame

12

First Lady (Pat Nixon), 1969–72

Artists

Explore works from this exhibition in the Whitney's collection

Explore works from this exhibition
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