The Different Faces of Emmeline Pankhurst - Purity, Dignity, Hope

The Different Faces of Emmeline Pankhurst - Purity, Dignity, Hope

I created these portraits of Emmeline Pankhurst as a part of my AS art exam project. which was on civil unrest - feminism in Britain. The intention of these studies was to use some of the techniques of the artist Andy Warhol, especially in his Marilyn Diptych, but in my own way. In Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych he used very bright and vivid colours to represent Marilyn Monroe when she was at the height of her career, whereas I have used the colours of white, purple and green to represent the colours of the Suffragettes. I used the colours because they were the colours used by the Suffragettes when the WSPU (Women's Political and Social Union) adopted these three colours in 1908. The white symbolised purity; the purple symbolised dignity; the green symbolised hope. These three colours were used to creates the WSPU's banners, flags, rosettes and badges.

Emmeline Pankhurst - Purity

The research I carried out into the work of Andy Warhol, especially his Marilyn Diptych,  influenced me to create a screen print, only creating the dark shadows of the photo of Emmeline Pankhurst, and leaving the light greys and whites completely white. In addition, in Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych, he used bright and vivid colours to represent Marilun Monroe when she was at the height of her career. this influenced me to use the three colours associated with the Suffragettes to add colour to three of my four screen prints. 

Emmeline Pankhurst - Dignity

Emmeline Pankhurst - Hope

I feel that these have been very successful, because I have been able to create a portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst, representing three of the things the Suffragettes believed in and symbolised: purity, dignity, hope. This is because in my first screen print I have left the white space of Emmeline Pankhurst's portrait  white to represent the purity of the Suffragettes. In my second print I have filled in the white space of Emmeline Pankhurst's portrait with different shades of purple (inspired by Andy Warhol when he used about six different shades of yellow to create Marilyn Monroe's hair) to represent the dignity of the Suffragettes. In my third print, I have filled in the white space of Emmeline Pankhurst's portrait with different shades of green (again inspired by Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych) to represent the hope the Suffragettes had. Finally, in my fourth print, I have used all three colours (with different shades of each) to fill in the white space in Emmeline Pankhurst's portrait. My fourth print represents all of the three things the Suffragettes colours symbolised: purity, dignity, hope. However, it also represents the pride and bravery the Suffragettes had whenever they were taking part in a demonstration to persuade the government to pass a new piece of legislation to allow women to vote.

From the experience of creating these four portraits of Emmeline Pankhurst, I have learnt that I can create a portrait of someone, but then also use certain colours, that are either related to them that represent something when they were associated with them, or use colours to represent the different sides of a person, or what they were / are perceived to be. 

Emmeline Pankurst - Dignity, Hope, Purity

I have used the techniques of silkscreen printing and painting to create four different portraits of Emmeline Pankhurst. The materials I used was an aceotate of Emmeline Pankhurst (made from a portrait I did of her using a black sharpie pen), black ink, and different shades of white, purple, green acrylic paint to create the symbolisation and representation of what the three colours associated with the Suffragettes represented. I feel that these materials have helped to create effective portraits of Emmeline Pankhurst.