Unidentified Woman n.d.

Andy Warhol made this gelatin silver print, titled ‘Unidentified Woman,’ sometime during his career in the United States. Warhol is well known for his work which engages with celebrity and consumer culture. It might seem that this photograph of an unknown person departs from that approach. But Warhol’s fascination with the social elite always ran alongside an obsession with the everyday. Perhaps this is just an ordinary person, but the composition and stark monochrome lend a certain drama to the image. The woman is posed naturally, yet self-assuredly. The slight blurring and the unfinished edges of the print perhaps ask us to question the construction of celebrity itself. As art historians, our work involves locating these kinds of images in their artistic and social contexts. Archival sources, such as letters and exhibition reviews, help us to understand how Warhol, and other artists, reflected and shaped the culture of their time.