Pia Zadora

Pia Zadora enters Andy Warhol’s diary as a celebrity whose portrait commission made visible the commerce and negotiation behind his art. In 1983, Warhol produced twelve portraits of her; Zadora and the people with her chose only two, while Warhol was pleased when her husband showed interest in the remaining works. The commission linked a private process of image-making to checks that helped sustain Warhol’s business and to a public party where the portraits became part of Zadora’s celebrity presentation.

The Portrait Commission

Warhol’s portraits were not casual snapshots but the result of a controlled production process. He typically photographed a subject with a Polaroid Big Shot, selected images, altered the chosen likeness, and translated it into a silkscreen portrait. Assistants prepared canvases with colored backgrounds, and the final photographic image was screened over painted areas; slight shifts in alignment produced the portraits’ characteristic visual effect. The diary does not specify which steps were used for Zadora’s pictures, but her twelve-portrait commission belonged to this larger practice of making celebrity likenesses into saleable works.

The commission also mattered financially. On August 30, Warhol noted that a check from Zadora the previous month had covered a month’s mortgage on his new building. The diary gives no amount, but the comparison makes the practical stakes clear: portrait payments could help meet a major recurring expense, not merely add to an abstract art-market total.

Selection and Sale

On September 5, Zadora came to see the portraits with her husband, Riklis, his mother, and another person. Warhol had made twelve, but the group liked only two, and these were not the ones he thought were best. The mismatch between the client’s preferences and the artist’s judgment left ten portraits unsold at that point. The episode shows that the commissioned portrait was not simply a finished likeness delivered to a satisfied subject; selection itself could divide the client’s taste from the artist’s assessment.

There was, however, a sale that pleased Warhol: Zadora’s party bought his Dollar Sign painting. Her visit therefore involved more than rejecting most of the portraits. The purchase turned the meeting into a success for Warhol even as the bulk of her commission remained unresolved. The diary records no final disposition for the other portraits.

Public Presentation

Zadora called on September 2 to invite Warhol to a party for her at Bob Guccione’s home and asked him to present the portraits there. On September 6, Warhol sent Jay home to dress for the event and had him accompany Warhol and Benjamin to carry the works. The portraits moved from the selection meeting into a social setting, where they were displayed as part of an occasion centered on Zadora.

The party’s other details sharpen the contrast between glamour and judgment. Zadora wore a red, white, and blue Bob Mackie dress with a star and a diamond ring set with blue sapphires. Yet the photographers did not respond to the portraits with uniform admiration: one disparaged their quality, while another answered that Warhol was famous for mediocrity. Warhol also recalled that guests continued to put Zadora down despite attending a party held for her. Against that atmosphere, Riklis approached him about obtaining the remaining portraits. Warhol was thrilled by the prospect, leaving the commission’s public debut suspended between mockery, celebrity display, and the possibility of further sales.

Significance in the Diary

Zadora’s brief appearance captures the different interests gathered around a Warhol portrait: the celebrity whose likeness was being made, the artist who judged the images, the family members selecting them, and the audience assessing them at a party. Her commission also connects that social performance to the business side of Warhol’s practice, where portrait checks helped pay for the operation and the images could circulate beyond the studio. The diary offers no account of Zadora’s wider life or of what became of the unselected portraits; its focus is the specific passage from commission, through selection, to public display.