Wayne Gretzky
Andy Warhol
Description
Subject Matter:
This photograph of ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky is one of a series taken in September, 1983. The series was commissioned in order to produce six silkscreen paintings of the hockey star.
The Warhol Foundation, celebrating Andy Warhol’s lifelong engagement and experimentation with photography, donated this collection of Polaroid photographs. The majority of Warhol’s Polaroid images were taken using Polaroid Big Shot or SX-70 Polaroid cameras from 1970-1987, although his work in this medium began as early as 1958. Throughout his career, he photographed artists, celebrities, sports heroes, and friends using his Polaroid cameras. Over half his sitters were not well-known or remain unidentified. Warhol often photographed his subjects multiple times from a variety of angles. The resulting portraits often repeat poses and frequently portray subjects wearing similar thickly applied white makeup, eyeliner, and red lipstick, which were visual techniques used to flatten the subjects' features, as Warhol often used the Polaroid photographs as the basis for portraits made in the mediums of silkscreen and paint.
Physical Description:
A bust-length portrait of a man. He turns his body toward the left of the frame, his face turned toward the camera. His hair is styled in a mullet, and he wears a sports jersey.
Usage Rights:
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.