untitled, Betsey Johnson

Artwork Overview

born 1942
untitled, circa 1980
Portfolio/Series title: Artifacts at the End of a Decade
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: offset lithograph; wove paper
Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 1287 x 391 x 100 mm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 50 11/16 x 15 3/8 x 3 15/16 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: National Endowment for the Arts and Mr. and Mrs. Francisco Drohojowski
Accession number: 1989.0005.08
Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
“Big Shots: Andy Warhol, Celebrity Culture and the 1980s,” Aug-2009, Susan Earle
Johnson is a fashion designer and was a frequenter of the Factory. Warhol had many connections to fashion, including shoe illustrations and a series of silkscreen dresses that he made. Betsey Johnson has a reputation as fashion’s wild child, creating clothing with flowing fabrics and whimsical details, and also has connections to The Velvet Underground’s musicians. She described the work displayed here as:
Striped-strong-second skins... Timeless-
ageless-almost sizeless... Washable-
packable-mixable-stackable... Affordable-
affectual-not intellectual... Black to
white-punk to petticoats-neon to niceness-
plastic to natural to plastic-new to old to
new... 1-2-1-2-1-2 ...Cycles-life in
fabric. My face = my life: Short-long... Soft-
hard... Old-new... Happy-sad... Black-
white. My world is of OPPOSITES.

Exhibitions