Andy Warhol's large, fifteen-foot painting of Mao Tse-tung reflects the immense impact that the Chinese leader had on the country. The head-on, close up, enormous portrait of Mao's face portrays his importance and dominance of the Chinese people to Warhol's audience. Although Mao remains a controversial figure to this day, Warhol's painting was not meant to represent his personal and political views about the leader, but rather to represent Mao's influence and to perhaps make facetious assertions about a serious topic.
Once the viewer recognizes the magnitude and importance of Mao, his or her eyes then focus on the painting itself. The brushstrokes, colors, texture, and medium, catch the viewer's eyes because they are what is seen when one is close to the painting. The viewer can only see the larger picture of Mao from a much farther distance. Large, thick brushstrokes form the majority of Mao's green shirt (not a very flattering shade of green, I must add) and the blue background. Both of these colors strikingly contrast with Mao's orange-colored face. These are the three primary colors of the color wheel, and they essentially comprise Warhol's painting. Because primary colors are used, there is not much mixing or blending of the foreground with the background. Mao is the prominent focus of the piece, and neither he nor his green shirt blend with the blue background whatsoever. Rather, the use of contrasting colors furthers one of Warhol's goals: to make Mao's stand out from the background thereby signifying his grand historical importance.
Because the image already existed before Warhol and speaks for itself, he simply used it as a referance piece. Therefore, Warhol's purpose wasn't to express his personal or political views about the leader, but rather to show his significance. It appears that some blue highlighting appear on Mao's eyelids, along with a hint of pink brushed on his lips. Because of these observations, the author of "Andy Warhol's Mao, 1973", Anne Rorimer, argues that Mao's blue eyeshadow and slightly pink lips signify a type of mockery about superficiality and perfection within our society. However, I originally did not agree with her assertion. At first thought, I believed that the colors bring some contrast and brightness to the painting, but were not used in a joking matter. However, based upon my knowledge about Warhol and his obsession with artificiality, perfection, and famous people, I then decided that the idea that Warhol might have used brighter colors to signify makeup on Mao is not out completely of the question. The possibility that Warhol created Mao with makeup on to create a jesting tone would coincide with what historians and art critics know about Warhol and his bizzare, flamboyant, mocking personality.
It is difficult to acknowledge the difference between the possiblity of artificial cosmetics and the fact that the blue and pink colors might have been used simply as a painterly substance to make the artwork more complete. Depending on one's views and previous knowledge about Warhol, this interpretation could greatly differ from person to person. Whether or not one agrees with Rorimer's analysis, I think it is safe to say that Andy Warhol was indeed a talented artist, and definitely made history with his unique assimilations of pop icons.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4113141.pdf
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