Featured here is one of the many works in the Government Art Collection, accompanied by further information about the work and the artist. The selection of works will change on a regular basis, so please come back again.
December 2007
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Dimensions
100(H) x 80(W)
Inscriptions
br: R PP1/2 Andy Warhol
Edition No
Printer's Proof 1/2
Published Acquisition
George C. P. Mulder, Amsterdam, 1985 Acquisition Purchased from Sotheby's, 2 July 2002
Number
17714
Description
Andy Warhol’s iconic image of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II hovers between the formality of a traditional portrait and the brashness of modern advertising. The photograph on which the image is based is an official Jubilee portrait taken in 1977. This vibrant screenprint is one of a number of portraits of Elizabeth II from a series by Warhol entitled Reigning Queens, which also includes images of the Queens of Denmark and the Netherlands. The technique of screenprinting enabled him to repeat the image with different colour combinations. Each block of colour is slightly misaligned, suggesting the imperfections of mass-produced commercial images.
Andy Warhol, one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, was born Andrew Warhola to Czechoslovakian parents in Pittsburgh. He studied painting and drawing at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh between 1945 and 1949, before becoming a highly successful commercial advertising artist in the 1950s.
