About the Work
Andy Warhol saw the famous portrait of Goethe by J. H. Wilhelm Tischbein during a visit to the Städel. As the quintessence of German culture, it inspired him to create this work and other prints, some of which are likewise in the Städel collection. In 1962 Warhol – a key figure of American Pop Art – began reproducing press photos of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley with the silkscreen technique. He defamiliarised his pictorial models – images known all over the world thanks to their propagation by the media – by translating them into garish colours and bold two-dimensionality. Through the serial production of his art in his studio, which he himself referred to as a factory, the classical distinguishing features of the artist – for example subjectivity and originality – recede into the background. At the same time, by staging Goethe as the superstar of the Städel, the city of Frankfurt and German Classicism, Warhol was reflecting on how the mass media have changed our perception of reality.
