Artist Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987)
Title Pete Rose
Date 1985
Medium Color silkscreen on paperboard
Dimensions Image: 37 1/2 x 29 5/8 in. (95.3 x 75.2 cm)
Sheet: 39 3/8 x 31 1/2 in. (100 x 80 cm)
Credit Line Extra, out of the edition. Designated for research and educational purposes only.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 2013.155
About this Work
The Pop artist Andy Warhol loved celebrity culture, even collecting headshots of Hollywood actors and actresses in his youth. He was savvy enough to recognize a change in contemporary culture with the rising international fame of sports figures like Muhammad Ali. As Warhol said, "The sports stars of today are the movie stars of yesterday." In 1978 he painted The Complete Athletes Series.
Although the MLB player Pete Rose was not part of that group, he was gaining infamy in the 1980s, when he was both playing and managing the Cincinnati Reds and about to break Ty Cobb's all time hitting record (which he did on Sept. 11, 1985). It was at that time that the Carl Solway Gallery in the Queen City, along with the Cincinnati Art Museum, commissioned Warhol to produce a portrait of the player nicknamed "Charlie Hustle." Warhol not only chose the bright red of the team's colors, but appropriated the style of an over-sized baseball card. In the original image, based on a photograph by Gordon Baer, there was the Reds' "Mr. Redlegs" logo in the small white circle with Rose's name below. Ironically, by August 1989 Rose would be permanently banned from baseball for betting on games, while still active on the teams.
