Pia Miller

Accession Number
2008/2.28

Title
Pia Miller

Artist(s)
Andy Warhol

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1985

Medium & Support
Polaroid

Dimensions
4 1/4 in x 3 3/8 in (10.8 cm x 8.57 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Subject matter
This photograph is a portrait of Pia Miller, now known as Pia Christina Miller Getty. Warhol photographed Pia and her two sisters: Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alexandra von Fürstenberg. "The Miller sisters" were prominent social figures during this period. This image would provide the basis for a series of screen prints created the same year.

The Warhol Foundation, celebrating Andy Warhol’s lifelong engagement and experimentation with photography, donated this collection of Polaroid photographs. The majority of Warhol’s Polaroid images were taken using Polaroid Big Shot or SX-70 Polaroid cameras from 1970-1987, although his work in this medium began as early as 1958. Throughout his career, he photographed artists, celebrities, sports heroes, and friends using his Polaroid cameras. Over half his sitters were not well-known or remain unidentified. Warhol often photographed his subjects multiple times from a variety of angles. The resulting portraits often repeat poses and frequently portray subjects wearing similar thickly applied white makeup, eyeliner, and red lipstick, which were visual techniques used to flatten the subjects' features, as Warhol often used the Polaroid photographs as the basis for portraits made in the mediums of silkscreen and paint.

Physical Description
In this bust-length portrait, a woman turns her body toward the left side of the image, while she turns her face toward the camera. Her hair is styled into a thick mess of waves, while her face is flattened with white makeup and red lipstick. 

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
artificial lighting
cosmetics
lighting techniques
pose
single-sitter portraits
women (female humans)

& Author Notes

All Rights Reserved