Lenin 1986

Andy Warhol made this ‘Lenin’ sometime during his career. It’s got this bold red background with Lenin himself rendered in yellow, white and blue. It's as if the portrait emerged, shifting and resolving through trial, error, and intuition. I can almost imagine Warhol in his studio, silk-screening image after image. The paint is thin, allowing the texture of the canvas to come through. The electric blue line that defines the contours of Lenin's face makes it appear more graphic, more iconic. It’s interesting because it reminds me of a painting by Elizabeth Murray. How her lines aren’t always lines of closure, but are there to suggest a form. Here, the lines are so important to define the face, the beard. It's all part of an ongoing conversation, you know? Artists looking, borrowing, stealing, riffing off each other. Painting is all about embracing ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings, rather than landing on one fixed reading.