Andy Warhol / Jacqueline Kennedy (Jackie) III

ANDY WARHOL – Jacqueline Kennedy (Jackie) III
Techinque: screenprint on paper
Year: 1965
Dimensions: cm 101.6 x 76.2
Edition: 200+50 in roman numerals. Signed and numbered on verso

The Jacqueline Kennedy (Jackie) series is one of the most iconic and the most touching set of works done by Andy Warhol.

These works combine two of his signature themes—celebrities and fatal disasters. The images of Jackie were sourced directly from the newspapers and therefore do not have the glamour touch which Warhol widely used as the basis for his other works.

The three prints were published in 1965 as part of the portfolios “11 works by 11 artists” in an edition of 200 + 50 in roman numbers.

Even though they are an editioned work, the three Jackies immediately became a key work in the Warhol production and started to be exhibited in the most important retrospectives dedicated to the artist.

As mentioned, the series (Jackie I, Jackie II and Jackie III) is based on press images that Warhol collected on the newspapers and magazines after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Warhol chose photos of Jacqueline Kennedy in the presidential car -just a few minutes before the assassination-, at the Capitol ceremony and at the funeral; three paramount moments.

He cropped the photos very closely around Jacqueline’s face and dissolved the background with flat, metallic colours, focusing the whole print on Jackie herself; on her different facial mimics and emotions.

Jackie III is a sort of historical recap of those dramatic days, a mix of emotions: disbelief, sadness and confusion.

It is composed by 4 quadrants, all of them indicating a specific moment of this tragedy, which becomes -as explained here above- more the tragedy of a woman, a mother and a wife rather than – as it also was- a tragedy for the whole Country.

The story of those days starts from the image at the bottom left where the subject is happy and smiling; totally unaware of what was going to happen later that day. The source of the photo for this quadrant is very similar to the one used for Jackie I

The second shot of the story (bottom left) was taken a few hours after JFK’s death. It shows a grief-stricken Jackie standing by Lyndon B. Johnson’s side during his swearing-in ceremony that took place on the Air Force One.

The third shot (top right) was taken during the ceremony in which Kennedy’s flag-draped coffin was carried to the Capitol. This image is very close in time to the one chosen for the Jackie II print.

The last photo shows Jackie at the funeral procession, walking next to her husband’s coffin.