In the weeks that followed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, Warhol began to collect pictures of the widowed First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy (1929–1994), that flooded the popular press. He had silkscreens made of his various Jackie images and, upon his move into a new studio (the first of his famous New York "Factories") on East Forty-Seventh Street at the end of January 1964, began to print them on small canvases with blue- and gold-colored grounds. The close-cropped image here reproduces a moment shortly before the President was shot, and the replication of the picture, over and over again, puts the ubiquitous coverage and public obsession with the tragic event into high relief.
Inscription: 1983.606.14 Signed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol Signed on verso on painted canvas flap (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol
1983.606.15 Signed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol Signed on verso on painted canvas flap (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol
1983.606.16 (blue Jackie) Signed on verso of canvas (lower right, in pencil): Andy Warhol Signed on verso on painted canvas flap (lower center, in pencil): Andy Warhol
1983.606.17 Signed on verso of canvas (lower right, in pencil): Andy Warhol Signed on verso on painted canvas flap (lower right, in pencil): Andy Warhol
1983.606.18 Signed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol Signed on verso on painted canvas flap (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol
1983.606.19 (gold Jackie) Signed on verso of canvas (along right side, in pencil): Andy Warhol Signed on verso on painted canvas flap (right edge, in pencil): Andy Warhol
1983.606.20 Signed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol Signed on verso on painted canvas flap (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol
1983.606.21 Signed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol Signed on verso on painted canvas flap (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol
1983.606.22 (faded blue Jacke) Signed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol Signed on verso on painted canvas flap (lower left, in pencil): Andy Warhol; 1983.606.14 Inscribed on verso of canvas (lower right, in pencil): Halston Inscribed on stretcher (upper left, in black marker): D
1983.606.15 Inscribed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Halston Inscribed stretcher (upper left, in black marker): B
1983.606.16 (blue Jackie) Inscribed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Halston Inscribed on stretcher (upper left, in black marker): A
1983.606.17 Inscribed on verso of canvas (lower right, in pencil): Halston Inscribed on stretcher (upper left, in black marker): F
1983.606.18 Inscribed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Halston Inscribed on stretcher (upper left, in black marker): E
1983.606.19 (gold Jackie) Inscribed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Halston
1983.606.20 Inscribed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Halston
1983.606.21 Inscribed on verso of canvas (lower left, in pencil): Halston Inscribed on stretcher (upper left, in black marker): C
1983.606.22 (faded bule Jackie) Inscribed on verso of canvas (lower right, in pencil): Halston Inscribed on stretcher (upper left, in black marker): G
Halston, New York (1964–83; his gift to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years," September 10–December 31, 2012, no. 24.
Pittsburgh. Andy Warhol Museum. "Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years," February 4–April 28, 2013, no. 24.
Georg Frei and Neil Printz, ed. The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné. Vol. 2A, Paintings and Sculptures, 1964–1969. London, 2004, pp. 103–5, ill. p. 145.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2012, p. 425, ill. (color).
Meredith Blake. "ART; 'Regarding Warhol' and Then Some." Los Angeles Times (September 30, 2012), p. E6, ill. (color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 532, ill. (color), colorpl. 476-484.
Douglas Eklund and Ian Alteveer inEverything is Connected: Art and Conspiracy. Exh. cat., The Met Breuer. New York, 2018, pp. 19, 21, fig. 8 (color).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2019, p. 425, ill. (color).
Blake Gopnik. Warhol. 1st ed. New York, 2020, pp. 348–49, discusses Jackie series.
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Andy Warhol (American, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1928–1987 New York)
1968
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