Andy Warhol Mao 95 (1972) is an unnerving take on the political leader’s image. Mao is made to look almost sickly, his skin ghostly and his lips a dusty rose color. The background is imperfect, and a weathered effect is created through the visibility of the white paper behind the ink in multiple places. The whites of Mao’s eyes have been replaced with a navy blue, and they are entirely dark and piercing. Warhol’s Mao 95 portrays the Chinese leader in an unsettling manner, and it is one of the more disquieting versions of the Mao iconography in Andy Warhol’s Mao screenprint portfolio.

Andy Warhol’s Mao screenprint portfolio appropriates the official portrait of Mao Zedong, the former Chairman of the Communist Party of China. Warhol was inspired by the portrait’s similarity to silkscreen and its ubiquity—Mao’s portrait was known to every Chinese person and could be seen throughout China in both public and private spaces. The Mao portfolio, made up of ten different versions of Mao’s portrait, evokes the propagandistic use of the image in China. Interestingly, Warhol treats Mao’s image in the same manner that he treats his portraits of Western celebrities. Mao’s cult of personality mirrored the cult-like followings of Western celebrities, and Warhol’s decision to treat Mao’s portrait in the same manner as icons such as Marilyn Monroe frames the Chinese leader as a pop icon. Warhol exposes the similarity between Western and Eastern adoration of individuals and the mass dissemination of their images, and his use of outrageous coloring examines fame in its multiple forms.

This screenprint is part of a portfolio of works Warhol created in 1972 titledMao. Other works in the Mao Portfolio include Mao 90 , 1972,  Mao 91, 1972,  Mao 92, 1972, Mao 93, 1972, Mao 94, 1972, Mao 96, 1972, Mao 97, 1972, Mao 98 , 1972, Mao 99, 1972.

Created in 1972, Andy Warhol’s Mao 95 is a color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board and is hand signed in ballpoint pen on verso. It is a unique work of an edition of 250, published by Castelli Graphics and Multiples, Inc., New York and printed by Styria Studio, Inc., New York.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:

Andy Warhol Mao 95, from Mao screenprint portfolio is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work).

1. Feldman, Frayda and Jörg Schellmann. Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 – 1987, 4th Ed. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2003. 
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:

Andy Warhol, Mao 95 is framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, artist name title, year is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.