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L ooking at her reflection in the mirror,artist Deborah Kass sees what theworld sees—a middle-aged woman

with, as those from a generation past mightput it, “the map of Jerusalem all over herface.” Surveying her 30-year career, she seeswhat she hopes art historians might see—arecord of what she was thinking when shecreated her most notable bodies of work: TheArt History Paintings (1989-1992), The WarholProject (1992-2000) and feel good paintingsfor feel bad times (2002-present).

Growing up, Kass says s he never s awhers elf in the images that flickered in blackand white on the family’s TV s creen orloomed larger than life in movie theaters ortriumphantly adorned mus eum walls . As ayoung Jewish girl living in Brooklyn, s heunders tood she wasn’t alone in the world;all s he had to do was walk down the s treetsof her neighborhood to feel a s ens e ofbelonging. That warm feeling of community,however, always gave way to a palpable voidwhenever she ventured too far from home.

Take, for example, the firs t time Kas s ,then a middle-schooler, explored the Museumof Modern Art and was left to wonder, “Whatdoes this have to do with me? ” S till, s he fellin love with art. Then she fell for Barbra.

S treisand, of course. “ I had never seen amovie s tar that looked like Barbra, which isto s ay that looked like me and everyone Iknew,” s he says . It was a defining moment,the firs t time Kass experienced her ownpres ence in pop culture.

S tarting October 27, The Andy WarholMus eum will host Deborah Kass: Before andHappily Ever After, a mid-career retrospectivethat explores that very intersection of popculture, art his tory, and the self. The show isa bit of a homecoming for Kass , who earned

her BFA in painting at Carnegie MellonUnivers ity in 1974. (Kass has said, “Warholwent there—so I went there.”)

Eric Shiner, director of The Warhol, seesKass as “one of the great American painters .”Her obsession with pop culture makes herwork the ideal subject for the museum—espe-cially considering what Kass calls her decade-long collaboration with Warhol.

S tarting in 1992, she s tunned the artworld by appropriating the work of the Popgenius of appropriation himself, replacing thefamous faces in Warhol’s paintings for acontingent of her own heroes , among themGertrude S tein, S andy Koufax, and of courseStreisand, the subject of The Jewish JackieSeries. For Kass , the work addressed a

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The Warhol highlights the work ofDeborah Kass, who’s spent a careerexploring power, gender, and ethnicityin pop culture.

BY BARBARA KLEIN

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miss ing part of the multicultural dialogue:Jewishness . Given the Holocaust, she foundthe omiss ion “alarming.” Her Warholesquepaintings of Streisand in Yeshiva drag fromthe film Yentl, titled My Elvis, highlighted yetanother s ide of the artist: her genre- and gender-bending sensibility.

Shiner acknowledges that Kass ’ initialforays into the art world were seldom greetedwith enthusiasm. “Feminist artists likeDeborah, who have that much drive, that muchpassion, have definitely been held back,” says

Shiner, noting that she was often dismissed bycritics and overlooked by the public.

Although times have changed (perhaps notquite as much as we think), time certainlyhas not changed Kass .

“Age has not mellowed her, oh no,” Shinersays . “She just turned 60 and she seems tohave a now-or-never mentality. She takes noprisoners . She’s waited decades to be a star.”

Ironically, Kass ’ career is expanding, inpart, by taking a look back. Peering throughthe lens of feminism, her series of art his torypaintings is about mixing and matchingimages from historic art and pop culture.“They’re not particularly personal,” she says ,“but more mid-’80s academic.” Not surpris -ingly, though, they pack a punch. Her 1991

“ Culture, high and low, is what made the rest of the world want to come here or be like us. So I am celebrating it.” - DEBORAH KAS S

Deborah Kass, Gold Barbra (The Jewish Jackie Series) (detail), 1992

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painting, Before and Happily Ever After, couplesWarhol’s take on an ad for a nos e job juxta-posed with a cartoon of Cinderella s lipping herfoot into that (in)famous glas s s lipper.

Kass ’ work will be featured in RegardingWarhol, Sixty Artists, Fifty Years, a major exhibi-tion examining the influence of Warhol on con-temporary art, which opens at the MetropolitanMuseum of Art this S eptember and will travelto The Warhol next February.

Today, she’s sampling lyrics —“C’mon GetHappy” and “Let the S un S hine In”—fromBroadway and the Great American S ongbook,placing them front and center on vibrantly colorful canvases .

“These are my most emotional paintingsever,” she asserts . Looking at “Daddy, I wouldLove to Dance,” she explains that it is thefemale emotional epiphany of A Chorus Line.It’s Kass talking to his tory, talking to her ownfather and remembering her feet on his feet,dancing in the living room.

It’s bittersweet. Sentimental. Even nostalgic.“What I’m nostalgic for is America’s great-

ness ,” says Kass . “Popular mus ic, movies , andpost-war painting were some of our greates tcultural achievements and exports . They didmore good for this country than any war.

“Culture, high and low, is what made therest of the world want to come here or be likeus . S o I am celebrating it.” �

Deborah Kass, Before and Happily Ever After, 1991