Picasso to Warhol

July 20, 2008

From Picasso to Warhol:
Modern and Contemporary Prints from the Collection

on view at the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
May 25 – August 24, 2008


Corner Suites: A Focused Look at the Exhibition

Entering the Art Museum’s galleries, I am transfixed by the images before me—bold, bright, and stunning. This exhibition includes prints from many major figures of twentieth-century graphics, moving gracefully from a realistic tradition to exuberant abstraction. With such a banquet before me, I am taking time to savor small bites, enjoying a few works at a time.

Theme and subject are varied, but portraits—faces of art—are everywhere. Especially compelling is the portrait by Lucien Freud, a British artist born in 1922, of a Man Resting, executed in 1985. At first glance, the man’s form, face down, eyes closed, mouth curved and resting, seems dark and brooding. Is he asleep or injured? Did he lie down in sleep or fall as a result of an accident? On closer inspection, the subtle and light line, so characteristic of an etching, suggests that there is lightness in this work. Does the artist feel affection for the subject?


Lucien Freud is best known as a painter, a master of psychological portraiture whose works have evolved from tight, linear depictions of the figure to loosely painted forms, rich and voluptuous. Most frequently, Freud presents figures either extremely close up or in blank and barren interiors, often reclining on a bed. Although Freud’s technical skill is extraordinary and matched by his ability to capture visual reality with perfect clarity, his main concern is to depict experience rather than appearance.

Man Resting is calm and composed; the full veins and looping whorls of skin suggest relaxation and calm. Eyes closed, shoulders rounded and still, the figure, while clearly based on a model, depicts the more human condition of fatigue graced by sleep. Freud created prints early in his career and returned to this medium as a vehicle to explore the figure. The attention to visual detail—note the softly curling hairs on the man’s back—seen in his paintings remains consistent in this print.

Adjacent to Freud’s work two merry faces look out into the gallery—John and Yoko, a lithograph created by British artist and musician John Lennon in 1970. It is part of a suite of works celebrating his marriage to conceptual artist Yoko Ono.
The faces are arranged within an imaginary triangle, a traditional composition, yet appear spontaneous and bright, freely drawn, and celebratory.


John Lennon is best known as one of the Beatles, a band which emerged from England in the 1960s, heralding huge changes in music, society, and art. Paralleling artists’ interest in popular culture, as seen in Pop art, the Beatles championed working class identity, celebrated a cheeky sense of fun, and embraced and promoted the idea that artists’ music should change over time to reflect their life experiences. John Lennon was interested in art as a young man, and he sketched and wrote poetry throughout his life. Like his music, his art is frequently satirical, questioning existing social rules and patterns.

John Lennon’s marriage to Yoko Ono signaled a change in his art. Moving away from close collaboration with the Beatles, he and Yoko began exploring new themes and ideas, and focused on creating art together. Yoko was a muse to Lennon, inspiring him to move into new media and to explore new subjects. This lithograph—light-hearted and free with lines swirling as if to knit John and Yoko together—depicts the joyous partnership of these two artists.


Facing John and Yoko is an image of a young woman, dressed for work yet shielding herself, twisting to cover her face. Artist Robert Longo created a series of lithographs in 1984 entitled Men in the Cities. The work in our collection, Cindy, is a portrait of photographer Cindy Sherman, yet it is more an image of everyman—or everywoman—dressed for success, but appearing attacked and vulnerable.


Robert Longo created these works in direct opposition to many of the existing art trends in the mid-1980s—they are realistic and true to life. The series includes more than 60 black and white works, which depict individuals who are part of a larger, almost theatrical whole. Longo asked friends to pose on the roof of his apartment in New York where he threw tennis balls at them or pulled ropes attached to the subject’s limbs. He then photographed the resultant movement. The photograph served as a model for the final image shown in bold relief against a deliberately blank ground. Cindy could be anyone, anywhere responding to the pressures of the materialistic, success-driven society of the 1980s.

Robert Longo is a decidedly contemporary artist, moving from film to printmaking to music with ease. Although trained in art, he is also inspired to direct film and opera. His work reflects a critical vision of contemporary life rendered stronger and more potent because of his great skill as a draftsman.