Andy Warhol The Shadow (F&S II. 267) 1981 Color Screenprint with Diamond Dust on Lenox Museum Board

Literature
Frayda Feldman and Jorg Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonne: 1962-1987, Fourth Edition, D.A.P., New York, 2003, Catalogue Reference F&S II. 267; another impression reproduced in color page 119.

About

When Andy Warhol created his now famous Myths Series in 1981, Warhol tackled the question of who are the American myths of the twentieth century? Although Warhol spent the bulk of his career celebrating icons and images of celebrities, to create the Myths Series, Warhol choose images that captured and captivated us in modern culture the way gods and goddesses captivated the masses in ancient Rome. Since the beginning of his career, Warhol had a preternatural gift for elevating and transforming banal objects, including soup cans, dollar bills and coca cola bottles, some of the many Pop Art objects that Warhol sought to elevate into symbols of the modern world. For the Myths Series, Warhol was more explicit in his intentions to identify the gods of modern American culture.

In a world obsessed with pop culture, five the Myths Warhol selected were famous 20th Century cinematic personalities, including Superman, Mickey Mouse, Dracula, The Wicked Witch of the West and King Kong. Others he selected for his Myths Series were the ubiquitous Santa Claus, Uncle Sam, Howdy Dowdy and Mammy. However, one of the ten Myth Series images he chose to celebrate was at the time, not as recognizable, the image of Andy Warhol himself as The Shadow.

To create The Shadow, Andy Warhol created a profile of a shadow largely reminiscent of the one used by master of suspense filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock.

With this self-portrait, Warhol neatly inserts himself into the pantheon of American icons, and clearly in the forty years since he created the iconic image of The Shadow, Warhol has been elevated to instant international mythic status. Warhol was always fascinated with his self portrait image and created many versions of himself in the 60's, 70's and 80's, sometimes in straight forward perspective while other times more harangued when he fashioned a self portrait of himself being strangled.

For The Shadow Self-Portrait, Andy Warhol created an image in which the Artist's haunting shadow rather than his face is the main focus of the work, demonstrating he is ironically aware that people are obsessed with the idea of him rather than who he is as a person. Andy Warhol The Shadow, 1981 screenprint was executed in an edition of 200 impressions plus 30 Artist Proof (AP's) impressions as part of the Myths portfolio of ten screenprints. In addition, Andy Warhol created other versions of The Shadow both on canvas as well as a small group of unique screenprints on Lenox Museum board, each created in a unique color combination.

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