Fame, once rare, was everywhere now that the combined seductive powers of photography and celebrity crystallized. Cultural critics, writers, and artists took note, including Andy Warhol who explored the thrill of fame from afar and first-hand, and who sensed the depth and poignancy of our need for attention and celebrity and our secret pleasure in seeing the mighty suffer and fall. Celebrity culture reached a new plateau in the 1980s with the popularity of TV shows like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, a rash of confessional interview and talk shows, and the interminable late-night appearances of stars on infomercials suggesting that we become their peers and share their fame by buying branded cosmetics, lines of clothing, and even kitchen appliances. In contrast to the awkward solemnity of portraits made a century earlier, lottery winners and victims of tragedies instinctively knew how to pose when cameras pointed in their direction. Pictures of the famous were no longer meant to be viewed from afar; they were deconstructed and evaluated with a criticality and sophistication that came from living in a world that confused image and appearance for substance and value. If we tire of celebrities' faces--staring down, out, or up at us, smiling, pouting, scowling, and flirting with us--there is little opportunity to avert our eyes. As conglomerate ownership of once independent media outlets become more concentrated in the hands of fewer companies, as pressures to increase corporate profits persists, and as markets become more segmented and targeted, the mass media is beholden to the gravitational pull of fame and celebrity as never before. Magazines like Hello snag hard-to-get subjects for feature stories by overlooking their mortal brushes with alcoholism and disease, their high visibility arrests for minor crimes, and their sexual foibles and allowing them full editorial approval of the stories and photographs of themselves that are published. Olympic athletes and beauty pageant contestants, eager for future endorsements and career opportunities, are obliged to perform in heart-tugging mini-documentaries that flaunt both their personal crises and their star qualities. The programming of numerous cable TV channels is dominated by the heavy rotation of celebrity news and video biographies of our favorite heroes and villains. Products branded with the names and images of movie, sports, business, cooking, and style czars fill crowded store shelves.

Andy Warhol. Jackie III from the portfolio 11 Pop Artists, Volume III. 1966. Screenprint, printed in color. Composition: 39 15/16 x 29 15/16" (101.5 x 76.1 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of original editions   select image for enlarged view

 

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©1999 The Museum of Modern Art, New York