On the wall portrait facing passersby, Andy Warhol’s signature bleach-blonde hair excites viewers’ eyes, calling to mind what they are about to see. Bold, chartreuse green and magenta pink are splashed on the complementary walls surrounding the portraits in this exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. This incendiary new exhibit features, for the first time ever on the West Coast, Warhol’s ten silk-screened portraits of ten different twentieth-century Jewish luminaries, including Golda Meir, Franz Kafka, Sigmund Freud and the Marx Brothers. The impact and relevance these portraits hold still resonates to this day, as the magnificent color choices and Pop Art style Warhol used brings attention to portraits that may have otherwise been overlooked. “Warhol’s star has really risen recently. He has become one of the most important artists of our times,” Associate Curator of the Contemporary Jewish Museum Dara Solomon says. “He is still so influential on emerging artists and the Jewish community loves this exhibit.”

The idea behind the exhibit can still seem somewhat ambiguous. Warhol’s provocative choices for who he was going to paint are as unexplained as his erratic behavior, particularly since he never met any of the ten subjects included in the exhibition. To help shed some light, the exhibit includes a blown-up picture of the actual list Warhol used to jot down names of the famous people he considered painting. The artifact also includes Warhol’s slash marks and coffee stains. Guest curator Richard Meyer explains, “The exhibit is literally superficial, and Warhol is acknowledging that.” By openly accepting the world as superficial, Warhol was able to portray American beauty and splendor without seeming cheap and trite. By taking it a step further and illustrating a select few from the Jewish community, his work in this exhibit continues to fuel the imaginations of aspiring artists and admirers twenty years after his death. Warhol’s Jews: 10 Portraits Reconsidered runs from October 12, 2008 to January 25, 2009. Daniah Khalil