Jackie 1964

Andy Warhol made this painting, Jackie, using silkscreen and paint to flatten out her image and make her into an icon. The way he puts the paint on, it's not about blending or hiding anything; it's like he's saying, "Here it is, take it or leave it." The black is really dense, almost like a void, and then this bright blue pops out, making Jackie's face both there and not there at the same time. Look at how the edges of her face aren't sharp; instead, they're kind of crumbly. It's like Warhol is showing us that even someone as famous as Jackie is still just a person, with edges that blur and fade. Warhol reminds me of someone like Robert Rauschenberg, who was also playing with images from pop culture and making us think about what it means to see and be seen. It's like they're both saying, "Hey, look at this stuff we see every day. What does it mean to us?"