Mrs. George (Sarah) Goldsmith 1985

This photographic portrait of Mrs. George Goldsmith was made by Andy Warhol, sometime in his career, and it is a masterclass in how an artist can transform a face into an icon. Warhol's bold choices – the stark white foundation, the defined red lip, the play of dark hair against a light background – they're all about surface and artifice, the very stuff of image-making. The powder is so matte, there's no play of light or shadow; it's a mask, really, and this deliberate flatness asks us to consider how we construct identity. The bright red lipstick, though, is a small eruption of life. This single splash of colour draws attention to the mouth, the space where speech happens. Maybe Warhol's trying to say that, beneath the mask, there's still a voice trying to be heard. Like those society portraits by John Singer Sargent, Warhol captures something beyond the surface, a tension between the made-up image and the person within.