Edward Kennedy 240 by Andy Warhol was produced to raise funds for Kennedy’s 1980 Presidential campaign. This work is particularly rare because it was a small edition originally intended only for donors of Kennedy’s campaign. This print, along with Edward Kennedy 241, are the only two prints that Warhol created of the famous politician. Warhol was vastly interested in political figures, with his prints such as Mao, Vladimir Lenin and Alexander the Great. However, he was doubly interested in the Kennedy family. In addition to the Edward Kennedy set, Warhol produced Flash, a portfolio of the death of John F. Kennedy, and a Jacqueline (Jackie) Kennedy portfolio.
Edward Kennedy 240 by Andy Warhol as Part of His Larger Body of Work
Although Kennedy didn’t go on to win the Democratic nomination, he continued to pursue politics and became known as the “Lion of the Senate.” While in office, Kennedy wrote hundreds of bills that were passed and enacted into law. The image of Kennedy comes from a Polaroid taken by Warhol. Warhol often used Polaroid photographs to help create and inform his large-scale portraits of celebrities and pop culture icons, as he had been involved in several rifts about using copyrighted images from other artists.
Photo credits: Warhol with unknown people and his portrait of Edward Kennedy. Courtesy of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Bettmann Archive.
