Accession Number
2008/2.29

Title
Tina Chow

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 Tina Chow, former wife of Michael Chow. She was a jewelry model from a young age, and known for her androgynous style. She was one of the first high-profile women to contract HIV/AIDs, dying from the disease in 1992. This portrait would later be used for a silkscreen 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 dark-haired woman turns her torso to the right. She looks over her shoulder, her face caked with thick white powder and bright 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)