Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh's portraits of artist Andy Warhol and architects Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright present creative personalities whose physical appearances are as arresting and authoritative as their art. In Warhol's portrait, the glowing bristles of a paintbrush melt into the artist's face and mirror his infamous wig. In a dark coat, tie, and crisp white Brooks Brothers shirt, Warhol embodies a "cool" disavowal of mainstream self-presentation, while Le Corbusier and Wright assume iconic poses in their signature garments and accessories-their artistic uniforms-that signal a fusion of life, work, art, and image.

"He received me graciously and co-operated fully in the making of this portrait, but in conversation he proved depressingly reticent. The reticence was deliberate and, I concluded, habitual. This man had been so much abused and so often misrepresented in the press and the public mind that he did not intend to further discuss his controversial views on architecture lest he be further misquoted and misunderstood. I did learn, however that Le Corbusier is devoting a good deal of time to painting and is not averse to discussing a side of his work which, I take it, is not controversial. He was especially proud that one of his paintings had recently been purchased by the National Gallery in London."