On View
On viewObject number2003.1
Gerald Ford
Maker
Andy Warhol
(American, 1928-1987)
Date1975
Mediumsynthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas
Dimensionsframe: 22 1/4 × 19 1/8 × 2 in. (56.5 × 48.6 × 5.1 cm)
image: 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm)
image: 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm)
Credit LineElisabeth Claire Lahti Fund
Exhibition History"Andy Warhol, A to Z: A Retrospective of the Work of the Master of Pop Art," Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI (Sept. 25, 2005 - June 1, 2006).
"Portrait and Presence," KIA Long Gallery (Apr. 16 - Sept. 18, 2011).
"A Legacy for Kalamazoo: Works Acquired through the Elisabeth Claire Lahti Fund, 1998 - 2012," KIA (Sept. 29, 2012 - Jan. 20, 2013).
"Lasting Legacy: A Collection for Kalamazoo," Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sep. 6, 2014 - Jan. 4, 2015).
"Andy Warhol's American Icons," Grand Rapids Art Museum, October 21, 2017 - February 14, 2018.
"Unveiling American Genius," KIA Permanent Collection Exhibition, Traditional, Markin, Nay and Groos Galleries (March 1, 2021 - December 31, 2023).Label TextAndy Warhol used images from the media and American popular culture as subject matter. Here, he turned his discerning eye to Gerald R. Ford, 38th President of the United States and native of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Emerging from a dark background, President Ford's solemn face is painted a surprising acidic pink and crisscrossed by hastily applied swashes of blue pigment. Warhol's pop style contrasts sharply with President Ford’s serious expression and rather unhip persona.
Originally a graphic artist, Warhol believed art was a product that could be created quickly and commercially. His studio, called "The Factory," employed many assistants who would produce up to 80 objects a day based on Warhol's designs. Warhol often used screenprinting, a commercial mechanical process common for advertising, to transfer a photograph to another surface, like canvas, as we see here in this unusual portrait of President Ford.
As part of his longstanding fascination with fame and popular representations of celebrities, Warhol did numerous portraits of presidents and presidential candidates, including John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. He was commissioned to do a portrait of Ford by Vogue for a feature story on the President in the October 1974 issue, and a few months later Ford became the first President to invite the artist to the White House. While some of Warhol’s other portraits of politicians veered into the realm of political commentary, his paintings of Ford seem less opinionated, and instead highlight the President’s sheer fame and the ubiquity of his image within the mass media of the time.
