Andy Warhol's "Jackie The Week that Was" (1963) was created in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, TX and produced from Warhol's gathering of newspaper clippings and photographs documenting response to the tragedy. Warhol's process of silkscreening (which we will discuss in class on Thursday) allowed him to reproduce existing photographic images in large scale and on canvas. How has Warhol organized these individual images of Jacqueline Kennedy within the composition? Is there an implied narrative to the arrangement? And how might we compare Warhol's image to Rembrandt's "tronies" as a category of image derived from, but not equivalent to, portraiture?
It seems as though Jackie is happiest in the top left of the collage, and as one moves down and to the right, her true anguish from watching her husband die is more evident. I see the implied narrative of Jackie transitioning from a beautiful celebrity to a grieving wife. She once made a habit of smiling for the cameras, but after suffering through such a horrific incident, she no longer could be a normal celebrity. Like Rembrant's tronies, each of these images aren't meant to be art on their own, but in Warhol's case, when they are put together collage-style, a representation of the human condition is displayed.
ReplyDeleteJoseph is quite right to note the progression from upper left to the lower and right side of the canvas as a narrative of Jackie's response to the tragedy of JFK's death. It is indeed interesting how no single image in the composition, but rather the collage of her varied response, gives the work its emotional force.
DeleteThe progression that Warhol has set up in the progression of these pictures suggests that there is some sort of narrative being told here. The piece seems to be set up that there are four registers and the first two and last two are the same pictures but flipped around. The first two registers of pictures seems to show how Jacqueline started out single and then met Kennedy and they got married. Then the narrative seems to move to their relationship as Kennedy is president. During these times, the pictures of Jacqueline may be the times when Kennedy was at a major public event or something in which Jacqueline was accompanying him. Then the last two registers seem to show the same pictures of Jacqueline where she has her head down, probably after her husband was assassinated. Since Warhol placed the same pictures in a row this can be seen as him experimenting with the new medium and the way in which people are depicted. Maybe he was figuring out which way to develop the photographs so they are accurate when looking at someone from left to right, like reading English.
ReplyDeleteHarry nicely points out that there are repeated images in the composition that are flipped in mirror symmetry, or repeated in different quadrants of the canvas. The work is an interesting response to collage and use of found images from the realm of media to create a compelling narrative.
DeleteThe piece seems to be divided into four quadrants. The top left shows Jackie happy, before her husband was shot. In the bottom right quadrant, Jackie seems to still be in shock post-assassination. In both the lower left and upper right quadrants, Jackie appears to be in mourning, wearing an almost stoic face. The blue square in the collage signifies the shift of photos taken before the shooting and photos taken after. Like Rembrandt’s tronies, Warhol’s collage of Jackie explores the idea of human emotion and the different ways people express such emotions through the face. Warhol also experiments with changes in lighting and orientation, just as Rembrandt did.
ReplyDeleteMaia makes a nice comparison with Rembrandt's tronies both in terms of the exploration of human emotion and the use of light and color to break up and orient the implied narrative of the composition!
DeleteThe image definitely seemed to be divided into four sections, each representing a facial expression of Jacqueline Kennedy. I think it represents her reactions as time passes. The first quadrant she is laughing, so it probably took place before the shooting and shows her usual happy self (the one photo highlighted in blue draws emphasis to this). In the second quadrant was probably right after the shooting, and she looks empty and sorrowful. By the third quadrant her chin is up and she looks to be showing a face of strength and power to a crowd despite her loss. The fourth quadrant photographs seem to be more private and personal, judging by the black background and her hidden face. Away from the cameras and American citizens, her deep grief is revealed by her lowered chin and downtrodden expression.
ReplyDeleteA really nice analysis of how the mood and emotional register changes between the four quadrants of Warhol's screen print!
DeleteWarhol has organized the images in a way that allows the viewer to compare the emotions that Jackie experiences during different phases of her life. The viewer is able to compare and contrast any one of the sixteen images with another image. Therefore, the viewer to gains a more holistic view of Jackie’s life, as he can observe Jackie’s facial expressions during her progression from a young woman to a grieving widow instead of her expression at just one point in time in her life. There is an implied narrative the arrangement, as work chronologically divides her life into three phases, the time before she marries Kennedy, the time she spends married to Kennedy and finally the time after Kennedy’s assassination. The faces in Warhol’s image and Rembrandt’s tronies both show emotions, but Rembrandt’s tronies are more striking as they depict more extreme emotions. Warhols’ image depicts Jackie’s natural facial expressions while Rembrandt’s tronies are slightly more contorted and less representative of everyday human emotions.
ReplyDeleteSophie makes a good point that Warhol's images of Jackie are culled from pre-existing photos in the media and thus are more immediate and documentary than Rembrandt's exaggerated expressions in his tronies. There is definitely a sense of a change over the course of time in the implied narrative of Warhol's work, but all the images actually belong to the week of JFK's assassination.
DeleteLike what my previous peers have said, the 16 images reflect the progression of Jackie's emotions throughout the week. It ranges from very happy and bubbly in the upper left corner pictures to downtrodden and grief stricken in the lower right corner. The pictures are also paired in mirrored arrangement; for every picture, there is another touching it that is its mirror image. The different angles brings the viewer's attention to different parts of the painting, whether through the directionality of her eyes or the tilt of her chin. Different lighting is also used in these mirrored pictures to emphasize components such as her eyes or hair. Perhaps Warhol is experimenting here with orienting pictures in a certain way much like how Rembrandt did with his tronies.
ReplyDeleteDaniel makes a great observation about how the mirror images of Jackie's face help to fix our focus on certain moments in the composition, as do the variations in color or level of inking Warhol applied in the silkscreen process.
DeleteI like the repetition of the portraits of Jackie in Andy Warhol's "Jackie The Week That Was". I think that the repetition of these newspaper clippings speak to the crazy amount of press that surrounded her in the time following her husband's assassination. The repetition illustrates how often her face and emotions were present in the media. You can spot a narrative that moves from the top left down then to the top right down. We initially see Jackie smiling and as the clippings progress, her face exhibits less of an attempt to fake a smile through this time to her actual feelings of sadness and despair over her husband's death. They can be easily compared to Rembrandt's tronies, because they both exhibit strong facial emotion. However, the difference is that Jackie is exhibiting these emotions in reality and not just superficially for a study. These individual images of Jackie largely impact the overall composition. Each of these photographs of her are of her posed very iconically. She in the time and still is an icon. Andy Warhol's composition speaks to the harsh reality these icons must feel in the media. Throughout the duration of the week's images, though these are all focused on her, the audience is reminded of the context from the background of particular images. The initial images have JFK standing in the background, which is juxtaposed with another official looking male in the background on the other side. This is slightly reminiscent of Hildesheim Doors - as the opposing images very much speak to one another.
ReplyDeleteJulia makes a wonderful comparison to the Hildesheim Doors and the typological juxtapositions in its composition! Warhol definitely is interested in a similar juxtaposition over time between Jackie before and after the tragedy of the assassination. There is also an important emphasis in this analysis on the relation between Warhol's work and the media that we discussed in class as well.
DeleteAndy Warhol’s “Jackie The Week that Was” is divided into four different sections that illustrate Jackie’s emotions before and after her husband’s assassination. The four quadrants make up 16 portraits in total. In each of the four parts there are two images each made twice that mirror each other. In the top left section and bottom right section, the top two portraits mirror each other with Jackie’s face looking opposite directions, and the bottom two mirror each other with Jackie’s face pointed inwards. The top left and bottom right sections show Jackie with the most emotion. In the top left she looks happy before her husband died, and he is in the background. The bottom right has her looking down with her face covering her eyes. In these she looks the most upset. The top right section and bottom left section also mirror in opposite directions but the top left and bottom left of each section are the same image but flipped. Likewise, the top right and bottom right are the same but flipped. The top right and bottom left show Jackie with more neutral expressions. Warhol organized the images to be read from left to right like English. Both Warhol’s collage and Rembrandt’s tronies illustrate human emotions through faces. In all of the portraits, personalities and feelings are shown with expression.
ReplyDeleteMaria rightly notes that the composition of Warhol's screen print is organized not only vertically but also horizontally, from left to right, in its portrayal of the progression of events leading up to, and in the aftermath of JFK's assassination. We can see both a similarity with Rembrandt's exploration of human emotion, and the different nature of that exploration in Warhole's 20th-century context of media and journalistic exploitation of celebrity figures like Jackie.
DeleteThe composition and color palette of this art share quality with those of the newspapers. Newspaper has a layout composed of blocks of information that viewers can both go through vertically and horizontally. This art work also shares a quality of collage that can been understood as a narration when viewing vertically and horizontally. Also, the documentary nature and a black and white texture of newspaper apply to this art of solemn color that uses images from media.
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