Unidentified Man (Thick Black Hair)
October 1980
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
dye diffusion transfer print (Polacolor)
Dimensions
image: 9.5 × 7.3 cm (3 3/4 × 2 7/8 in.) sheet: 10.8 × 8.6 cm (4 1/4 × 3 3/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.)
Accession Number
2016.22.294
Art Historical Context
In October 1980, Andy captured *Unidentified Man (Th Black Hair)* using a dye diffusion transfer print or Polacolor—a Polaroid instant photography process that Warhol favored for its vibrant colors and spontaneous immediacy. This intimate photograph, measuring just 9.5 × 7.3 cm, showcases a close-up portrait of an anonymous figure with striking, thick black hair, rendered in the medium's signature glossy, saturated hues. Part of the Corcoran Collection now at the National Gallery of Art it exemplifies Warhol's late-career fascination with the everyday and the ephemeral. Warhol, a pioneer of P...
About the Artist
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol, born Andrew Warhola Jr. on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was the youngest of three sons to Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants Ondrej and Julia Warhola. His devout Byzantine Catholic family nurtured his artistic inclinations; bedridden at age eight with Sydenham's chorea, he drew from comic books and Hollywood magazines supplied by his artistic mother Julia, who later influenced ...