I visited The Broad Museum in Los Angeles and came across several interesting prints during my time there. When screen-printing was first revealed to me, I had learned about Andy Warhol's famous Pop Art works including his "Campbell Soup Cans" and "Gold Marilyn Monroe." Andy Warhol was born on August 6th, 1928 in Pittsburgh. Warhol went from being a successful magazine and ad illustrator to being a major figure in the 1960s Pop Art movement. Andy Warhol's iconic prints associate such items as dollar bills, Coca Cola bottles, Campbell's soup cans, and portraits of celebrities can be appropriated as criticism on the animosity, uncertainty and unoriginality of American Culture.

Andy Warhol

Self-Portrait, 1966

Acrylic, silkscreen ink, pencil, and ballpoint pen on linen

Having known that design-forward portraiture fascinated Warhol for years, I decided to check out his self-portrait at The Broad Museum. While minimizing his human qualities, the image painted intentionally to display his facial features by emphasizing the contrasts and changing colors. He portrays himself as an icon or celebrity in his own right. Over time, his works became a social register of people through his preeminence in portraiture. Warhol's silkscreens appeared as precise as the work of a machine although whatever he did or did machine like is what he wanted to do.

I believe that in Warhol's self-portrait, he illustrates himself as a bystander of modern life. Coincidently, he is also portrayed as a celebrity or dynamic icon. I am captivated by artists who use self-portraits solely because of how an artist can depict themselves as the main subject in their composition. I feel inspired by how Warhol portrays himself in his self-portrait.