Unidentified Woman (Young Blonde in Blue Polyester Blazer) 1974

This is a Polaroid photograph of an unidentified woman by Andy Warhol. I wonder who she was? Did Warhol just pick her at random? He often captured people in that era who moved in his circles, or, perhaps, wanted to. She looks like she’s on her way to, or from, work. I am curious about her blue eyeshadow, a real marker of the time. I bet her blue polyester blazer felt slippery. It’s interesting how Warhol used the immediacy of Polaroid to get at something both intimate and yet supremely impersonal. It captures the sitter in that moment, yes, but then the silkscreening flattens and abstracts her, making her almost generic. So, the intimacy is somehow annulled, and she becomes more of an object to behold. And yet, I wonder about her?