| Description |
My thesis recounts Andy Warhol's 1967 controversy at the University of Utah, in which the artist sent actor Alan Midgette to lecture in his place. My first chapter incorporates critical source material from the University's student newspaper the Daily Utah Chronicle, including articles, eyewitness testimony and photographs, to reconstruct a narrative of the event. Challenging the prevailing interpretation of Warhol's Utah lecture as a ‘fraud ‘or ‘hoax,' my thesis considers the entire episode through the lenses of performance and self-portraiture. My second chapter reveals the degree to which Warhol's performance reveals both absence and presence. Sending Midgette to lecture in his place reaffirms Warhol's career-long obsession with masking. Additionally, the Chronicle's photographs of Midgette emphasize this polarity rather than dissolving it. My second chapter also describes self-portraits from various stages in Warhol's career. His inclination to declare, repeat, and conceal is apparent in his Utah performance and throughout his catalog of self-portraits. My thesis reveals how these themes indicate a history of performed identity. This clarifies Warhol's evasive self as subject, providing insight into his performative self-portrait. Throughout his career, Warhol uses self-portraits to reveal his many guises. Warhol's aversion to ‘realistic' self-representation exposes a psychological inability to confront his self- image. |
