“From the beginning, Warhol offered a contradictory balance between up-close intimacy and calculated artifice.” —Robert Rosenblum, Andy Warhol’s Disguises

The Feldman Gallery will exhibit a large selection of Andy Warhol self-portraits from 1966 to 1982, including paintings and unique prints, some never before exhibited, and photography and video made with collaborators. Self-portraits occupied a central position in Warhol’s entire body of work and were important in the creation of his public persona. Controlling his own image, Warhol played with the art of disguise and deception, seemingly telling us all, yet revealing very little. There are many Andys, but Warhol remains substantially unknowable.

The exhibition includes several variations of Warhol’s depiction of himself as The Shadow, the mysterious radio character from the 1930s through the 1950s, as part of the 1981 Myths series. Featured is a large composite painting that incorporates ten American myths with Warhol’s profile image placed along an entire edge. Also on view are unique trial proofs from the edition of The Shadow – some with diamond dust – and The Shadow with Glasses, characterized by energetic drawing. Based on the reworking of the repetitive image, the prints exhibit color combinations that range from sumptuous contrasts to monochromatic studies.

Two silkscreen self-portraits from the ‘60s represent the young Warhol, already a Pop icon and part of the culture he celebrated. Larger-than-life self-portraits from 1977, nine years after he was shot, combine different poses with silkscreen effects. A mock strangulation conflates a possibly spontaneous moment with the theme of sudden death. In a 1982 unique print, derived from a photograph to promote his modeling career, Warhol stares directly at the viewer as do many of his celebrity portrait subjects.

Photographs by Christopher Makos include Altered Image in which Warhol, inspired by Man Ray’s portrait of Duchamp, role-plays in drag and Andy Warhol Modeling Composite that depicts practice poses and commissioned assignments. Warhol’s appearances on TV are documented with clips from The Love Boat, Saturday Night live, and Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, his self-produced cable show. Gerard Malanga’s film, Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man, 1964-65, mimics the pace of Andy’s films and screen tests, a contrast to a 1987 video of Warhol walking a fashion runway, his last public appearance a few days before he died.