In Memoriam: Liz Taylor (1932 – 2011)

In tribute to Warhol’s beloved subject Elizabeth Taylor, who passed away at age 79 on March 23, The Warhol has installed two of Warhol’s Liz paintings from 1963 in the Museum’s Entrance Gallery. Taylor fans can pay their respects to the Hollywood legend through March 25 at 4 pm.

Warhol chose the source image for this painting of actress Elizabeth Taylor from a publicity photograph of her 1960 film, Butterfield 8. He created this portrait when Taylor was at the height of stardom, but was also very ill with pneumonia. Warhol remembered: “I started those [pictures of Elizabeth Taylor] a long time ago, when she was so sick and everyone said she was going to die. Now I’m doing them all over, putting bright colors on her lips and eyes.” Art historian Robert Rosenblum reflects on Warhol’s artistry both of technique and of selection: “the contradictory fusion of the commonplace facts of photography and the artful fictions of a painter’s retouchings was one that, in Warhol’s work, became a particularly suitable formula for the recording of those wealthy and glamorous people whose faces seem perpetually illuminated by the afterimage of a flash-bulb.

Works on view:
Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987)
Silver Liz [Ferus Type], 1963
silkscreen ink, acrylic, and spray paint on linen
40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6 cm.)
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
1998.1.55

Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987)
Silver Liz [Studio Type], 1963
silkscreen ink and silver paint on linen
40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6 cm.)
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
1998.1.56

Additional Information

The paintings will be on view in our lobby. Museum admission is not required. The portraits will be on view through Friday, March 25.