Richard Avedon, "Andy Warhol, Artist, New York City"

#somereallygoodones, #richardavedon, #andywarhol, #assassination, #scars

Twenty years ago perhaps, the photography collector and dealer George R. Rinhart described this Richard Avedon image of Andy Warhol to me as the best portrait of the twentieth century. That made me pause. People have forgotten about Rinhart, but he was important. Not only did he have an enormous collection of photographs, but he was a tastemaker along with Sam Wagstaff and John Waddell, Paul Walter, Pierre Apraxine, Howard Gilman, and Harry Lunn. These men were responsible for elevating the photography market in the 1970s.

Why would it be the “best” or even “greatest”? It’s shocking in its mapping of violence. Warhol was gunned down by a female schizophrenic colleague in the lobby of his studio building (June 4, 1968). The portrait serves a metaphor for the horrific violence of the late sixties. Indeed Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated two days after Warhol was shot (June 6, 1968).

“X” does literally make the spot on his body for wounds and surgeries. We only see the torso. Avedon has cropped out superfluous identifying material and used the artist’s arms and black leather jacket as framing. The body has a warrior like or heroic, even mythic presence.

Warhol’s right hand behaves like a calming and restraining gesture as if it were holding back his guts which might spill out. The left hand peels back the waistband of the pants and underwear tentatively beckoning us to take a closer look. The whole form is a face if you please — if portraits need to have faces — with the nipples as eyes. It’s unsettling — discommoding — but not overwhelming, striking a balance between being unseemly or grotesque and mesmerizing.

I cannot think of anything like it.

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