Queen Beatrix 1985

Andy Warhol gave us this screenprint of Queen Beatrix, and it's like he's remixing royalty through pop. The electric blue hair and the bold orange just smack you in the face, don’t they? Warhol's all about process, and you can see it here. It's not about hiding the mechanics; it's about laying it bare. Those flat planes of color, they're not trying to be smooth or seamless. There's a real physicality to the medium. The way the colors butt up against each other creates this tension, a visual buzz. It makes you look, really look, at what it means to portray someone, especially someone so iconic. It’s like he is saying, how many layers of representation do we have here? It’s all very Warhol, very much in conversation with his other portraits of famous faces, and that whole Pop Art thing of elevating the everyday. But it's also questioning the very nature of fame and image-making, leaving us with more questions than answers.