-
Artworks
Deborah Kass
Four Barbras, 1992Silkscreen and acrylic on canvas20 x 24 in
50.8 x 61 cm7884Further images
The iconic face in this portrait by Deborah Kass is that of Barbra Streisand. The work is part of a series of paintings for which Kass appropriates Andy Warhol's signature...The iconic face in this portrait by Deborah Kass is that of Barbra Streisand. The work is part of a series of paintings for which Kass appropriates Andy Warhol's signature screenprinting technique. Wishing to use the language of subjectivity to rekindle the potential for Feminist painting, Kass uses this series to leverage art history for its cultural clout, cleverly injecting it with her own narrative. Warhol is a natural fit for the gesture, himself having appropriated photography for his signature screenprinted paintings. Kass carefully studied his techniques in order to emulate his style with incredible precision, deftly interjecting her own subject matter. For her initial foray into the series, in place of a portrait of Jackie Kennedy, Kass offered this recognizable profile of Streisand in one of her most famous roles—the famous Jewish comedienne Fanny Brice, as she was memorialized in the musical Funny Girl. Streisand in Funny Girl is an indelible icon of Jewish womanhood. Gold Barbra epitomizes Kass's goal of writing her heroes into the official story of art history. As a queer, Jewish female, Kass has long been aware of the absence of people with her identity from the canon of art history. In the 1990s, she began a series aimed at correcting that problem by borrowing the aesthetic language of one of the most famous white male artists in America and using it to memorialize those who had previously been left out.1of 2