Ted Turner 1986

Andy Warhol made this portrait of Ted Turner using screen printing, and the colours are giving me life! The flat planes of blue, yellow and fleshy pink, feel like a puzzle. I love the way Warhol celebrates the inherent qualities of the screen printing process. The registration is slightly off, revealing layers and misalignments. Nothing is concealed! Look at the blue and pinks of Turner's face. It is the kind of colour palette that feels almost edible! And that pointing hand! It's a bold gesture, pointing out... what? Maybe it is Warhol pointing out the way in which we create celebrity? I find it endlessly fascinating that Warhol used repetition and this slightly detached style of working to make the most intensely personal portraits. Think of Elizabeth Peyton and her delicate portraits of pop stars and royalty, she uses this same kind of distancing to draw you in. Maybe it's because distance is the place where desire begins.