Andy Warhol The Kick Unique

Andy Warhol
Letter to the World – The Kick (FS II.389) (1986)
Unique Silkscreen
91 x 91 cm
Stamped and authenticated by the Warhol Foundation
The screen print Letter to the World (The Kick) (F. & S. II.389), from the
Martha Graham series (1986), is one of three prints by Andy Warhol that
depict the distinguished dancer Martha Graham. This is a lively
composition showing Graham performing one of her choreographic motifs
from the ballet Letter to the World, with her body tilted forward and her
leg in the air.

Recalled as the ‘Picasso of dance’, Graham was one of the most prolific
dancers and choreographers of the 20th century and influenced dance
worldwide with her pioneering physical vocabulary. Letter to the World
(The Kick) is a celebratory image of
Graham’s legacy that captures the
dancer’s unparalleled skill in
expressing emotion through
movement. Warhol used a photograph
of Graham taken by Barbara Morgan in
1940 as his source material for the
print, which was widely published at
the time. The appropriation of this
famous photograph is synonymous
with the aims of the Pop Art Movement
and Warhol’s depiction of famous icons
through the screen-printing method.
Warhol characteristically immortalises Graham’s fame into a screen print
of vivid colours, just as he had done in earlier works of Marilyn Monroe,
Elizabeth Taylor, and Elvis Presley. Using the screen print method, Warhol
depicts Graham in radiant colours layered against a dark background, to
give the figure an illuminated presence as though she were on a lit stage.
Loose, organic lines accentuate the flowing fabric of the dress and Graham's
free and effortless bodily movements.