Is it art, or is it controversy?
For two days in May, the Gales Gallery in Accolade East will display one of Andy Warhol’s most iconic sets of work. Often referred to collectively as Warhol’s Jews, the collection is a series of prints by Warhol featuring portraits of some of the great Jewish luminaries of his time. The exhibit include the likes Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and the Marx brothers. All ten of the portraits are done in Warhol’s unique style, and for the last 30 years have been followed by a storm of controversy.
“[The way it] exploits its Jewish subjects without showing the slightest grasp of their significance is offensive – or would be, anyway, if the artist had not already treated so many non-Jewish subjects in the same tawdry manner,” said critic Hilton Kramer, upon the unveiling of the prints in 1980. It can come off as very commercial, made for the sake of being made with no weight or reverence given to its subjects. This is a complaint made constantly against Warhol’s direction, as the Catholic-born artist applied the same set of basic, blocky, artistic constructions to less revered figures, often celebrities and entertainers.
Observing the portraits now, they seem very typical of Warhol’s work – any stigmatization regarding Warhol’s treatment of his Jewish subjects seems to have been erased, which leads to its own set of questions, namely, should this controversy still exist?
While Warhol’s earlier work retains significance, and his portraits of Jewish people have maintained some controversy by people of their generation, it’s become more difficult to identify the problems Kramer had with them in the first place. Warhol stated he was more motivated by the faces of the figures rather than their achievements. It’s easy to see these portraits as an exploration of the faces of genius rather than one of cultural heritage. They still have power and importance, even if that’s simply in the documentation of their time and the stir they caused post-unveiling.
These prints are original works from one of the world’s greatest modern artists, and they’ll be at York from May 7-8.
Abdul Malik
Arts Editor
