Andy Warhol’s Noses, Capitalism & Race, and the Art of Plastic Surgery

Season 1, Episode 3,   Feb 18, 2022, 11:27 AM

Emma and Christy discuss surgical and cultural ideas embedded in Andy Warhol’s series of Before and After paintings (1961/62) of a nose job. In this episode we talk plastic surgery and big egos, the before-and-after image trope, racial typification, criminology, connoisseurship, and American consumerism and capitalism.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE IMAGES WE DISCUSS, as well as complete show notes, references, and suggestions for further reading.

IMAGES DISCUSSED:
Andy Warhol, Before and After [1] (1961)
Old Lady / Young Lady Optical Illusion (See also: William Ely Hill, My Wife and My Mother-in-Law (1915))
National Enquirer Ad (recurring ad; ran at least in 1961 and 1962)
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962)
Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe (1967)
Andy Warhol, Before and After [2] (1961)
Andy Warhol, Before and After [4] (1962)
Example of: Jackson Pollock (1948)
Example of: Lee Krasner (1964)
Example of: Roy Lichtenstein (1964) (note his use of Ben Day dots for the girl’s skin)
Andy Warhol, Coca-Cola [3] (1962)
Andy Warhol, Bonwit Teller window with paintings (1961)
Margaret Bourke White, The Louisville Flood (1937)
Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi (c. 1500)
Giovanni Morelli, Ears Illustration from Italian Painters (1892)
Alphonse Bertillon, Ear Photographs from Identification of Persons (1893)
Examples of Francis Galton’s composite images: The Jewish Type (c. 1877–c. 1890) and Composite Portraits of Criminal Types (1877)
H. Stickland Constable, illustration showing an alleged similarity between ‘Irish Iberian’ and ‘Negro’ features in contrast to the higher ‘Anglo-Teutonic’ (late 19th c.)
Photograph by Mark Peckmezian for The New Yorker, Recreation of colouring Roman busts: the Treu Head (second century AD); see also marble bust showing traces of red pigment on lips, eyes, and the fillet (first century AD)
Andy Warhol, 13 Most Wanted Men (example from the most wanted men series of works) (1967)

CREDITS:
‘Drawing Blood’ was made possible with funding from the Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network.
Follow our Twitter @drawingblood_
Audio postproduction by Sias Merkling
‘Drawing Blood’ cover art © Emma Merkling
All audio and content © Emma Merkling and Christy Slobogin
Intro music: ‘There Will Be Blood’ by Kim Petras, © BunHead Records 2019. We're still trying to get hold of permissions for this song – Kim Petras text us back!!