Royal Collection Acquires Warhol’s Queens
Queen Elizabeth II is the most portrayed royal in history – and among the most popular subjects for portrait artists ever. So it’s appropriate that the Queen’s Royal Collection have invested in a new, contemporary portrait of Elizabeth in this year of the Royal Jubilee. But the curators have chosen not a painted royal Diamond Jubilee portrait, but a splashy series of four late Warhols, all screen-printed in monochrome, with abstract collage effect color-block squares and complete with sparkly tiaras made from crushed glass. My only objection is in buying just these four prints of Elizabeth II, the Royal Collection have divided up what should have been a wider series of beautiful Queens, including Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Margrethe of Denmark and Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland. The original series, which was Warhol’s original intention for display purposes, boldly puts all these beauties on a level paying field, asking us to compare them, our relationship with each of them, and observe how differently each one carries her power.
