John Lennon
John Lennon
Signed Print
Andy Warhol
102 x 102cm, Edition of 36, Screenprint, 1986
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Meaning & Analysis
John Lennon is a signed screen print made by the renowned Pop artist Andy Warhol in 1986. The print comes in an edition size of 36 and shows the iconic English singer and songwriter who rose to fame as the founder and co-lead of the British band, the Beatles. Against a bold red backdrop, Warhol produces a portrait of Lennon looking directly out of the print with a neutral yet warm gaze. Lennon is captured from the shoulders up and is drawn wearing his signature round glasses. Warhol uses a variety of brightly coloured crayon-like lines to delineate Lennon’s facial features and hair, adding texture to the otherwise flat style of the print.
The print was made to be the cover art for Lennon’s second solo album, Menlo Ave. Yoko Ono, Lennon’s wife and Warhol’s close friend, asked Warhol to produce this design. Yoko Ono herself was a famous Japanese-American artist and Warhol spent a lot of time partying with her and Lennon in New York. The album was released just a few months before Lennon’s shocking death.
Warhol produced a large number of portraits of notable figures ranging from stars of popular culture like John Lennon, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe to political figures like Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin and Richard Nixon. Warhol’s portraits capture the artist’s fascination with celebrity status and stardom and his interest in the way in which people can be memorialised through art.
