Elizabeth Taylor

Andy Warhol began creating images of Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960s, at the height of the actress’s career. Taylor was already one of the most acclaimed performers at the time, but her celebrity status was cemented by the drama surrounding her tumultuous romantic relationships and a bout of pneumonia that pushed her to the brink of death. Taylor was an ideal subject for Warhol: She possessed a similar combination of success, beauty, and tragedy as did Marilyn Monroe. Warhol made silkscreen paintings of Taylor dressed for her roles in National Velvet and Cleopatra, but his best-known image of Taylor, Liz (1964), is based on a closely-cropped promotional photograph for Butterfield 8. Like his famous portraits of Monroe, Warhol adds bold color to Taylor’s face to represent her makeup, although this embellishment often looks more garish than glamorous.