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The Star (FS.II.258, Myths), 1981
Price on Request
Details
Medium: hand-signed screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Year: 1981
Edition: 274
Sheet size: 38 x 38"
Image size: 38 x 38"
Framed size: 47.25 x 47.25"
Signature: signed 'Andy Warhol' and annotated on verso
Year: 1981
Edition: 274
Sheet size: 38 x 38"
Image size: 38 x 38"
Framed size: 47.25 x 47.25"
Signature: signed 'Andy Warhol' and annotated on verso
About the Work
"The Star (FS.II.258" is a screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board created by Andy Warhol in 1981 for his 'Myths' series. From the edition of 274, the artwork is signed 'Andy Warhol' and annotated on verso. The artwork is framed in a contemporary black stepped frame and has a framed size of 47.25 x 47.25". The artwork ships framed and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
Andy Warhol’s "The Star (FS.II.258)," from the 1981 "Myths" portfolio, presents Greta Garbo not simply as an actress, but as an embodiment of cinematic mystique. In this series, Warhol assembled a modern pantheon drawn from popular culture: Superman, Mickey Mouse, Santa Claus, Uncle Sam, Dracula, the Wicked Witch, and other figures whose images had become larger than their original stories. "The Star" belongs squarely within that idea. Garbo appears not as a private individual, but as the myth of stardom itself.
The image is based on Garbo’s role in "Mata Hari," the 1931 film in which she played the dancer and accused spy whose life had already become a mixture of history, legend, glamour, and tragedy. Warhol’s choice of source is fitting. Garbo was famous not only for her beauty and screen presence, but for her distance: a star whose reserve became part of her power. In Warhol’s hands, that aura becomes even more heightened.
The composition is frontal, symmetrical, and commanding. Garbo’s face fills the square format like a mask or idol, framed by an elaborate headdress and large earrings. The red tonal field gives the portrait theatrical intensity, while the black ground and shadows create drama and distance. Pale blue and violet outlines sharpen the features, and the eyes hold the center of the image with a cool, direct stare. She appears both present and untouchable — an image designed to be looked at, but never fully reached.
The use of diamond dust is central to the work’s effect. It reinforces the subject of the print: celebrity as shimmer, surface, and projection. The material catches light and turns the portrait into an object of spectacle, echoing the artificial glow of cinema and the language of “stardust” itself. Warhol is not simply decorating the image; he is making the idea of glamour visible as a surface.
Within the "Myths" portfolio, "The Star" is one of the more elegant and atmospheric subjects. It is less playful than Mickey Mouse or Santa Claus, and less overtly heroic than Superman, but it carries a different kind of force: the mythology of old Hollywood. Warhol understood that movie stars could function like modern icons, their images repeated until they became symbols of beauty, desire, and memory.
"The Star" is both homage and transformation. Warhol preserves Garbo’s mystery while translating it into the language of Pop: flat color, screenprint, repetition, and glittering surface. The result is a portrait of stardom as myth — glamorous, remote, artificial, and enduring.
About the Artist
The Star (FS.II.258, Myths), 1981
Regular price
$295,000.00
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