1963
See also : Painting USA Warhol USA by Warhol Celebrities by Warhol Lichtenstein England Bacon The Man Modern China Landscape
1963 The Disaster of America
2013 SOLD 105 M$ including premium
The American dream is not enough to express the world. Very early, Andy Warhol wants to confront death. Death and Disaster is the generic name he gave to this new artistic theme. The news spread by the magazines are horrible. In 1963, Andy rescreened the images of their most terrible car accidents.
On November 13 in New York, Sotheby's sells Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), 267 x 416 cm. It is a diptych, estimated $ 60M. It is illustrated on the blog post shared by Sotheby's.
On the left, the image is repeated fifteen times in three columns and five rows, with some variations in the shades of gray. On the right, the area is empty, as if the horrific scene had an extension inviting for the destruction of other lives and other cars. Warhol made a similar use of the diptych in some pictures of Liz.
Another accident of the same year based on two different images became famous in the history of auctions when Christie's sold Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), 229 x 203 cm, for $ 72M including premium on 16 May 2007 from a lower estimate of $ 25M showing that the tragic dimension of Warhol's art had not yet been appreciated at its fair value .
The pale green of the Burning car and the apparent incompleteness of its sequence in the bottom right corner put this image in the direct continuity of the Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster).
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly important Warhol was sold for $ 105M including premium.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
On November 13 in New York, Sotheby's sells Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), 267 x 416 cm. It is a diptych, estimated $ 60M. It is illustrated on the blog post shared by Sotheby's.
On the left, the image is repeated fifteen times in three columns and five rows, with some variations in the shades of gray. On the right, the area is empty, as if the horrific scene had an extension inviting for the destruction of other lives and other cars. Warhol made a similar use of the diptych in some pictures of Liz.
Another accident of the same year based on two different images became famous in the history of auctions when Christie's sold Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), 229 x 203 cm, for $ 72M including premium on 16 May 2007 from a lower estimate of $ 25M showing that the tragic dimension of Warhol's art had not yet been appreciated at its fair value .
The pale green of the Burning car and the apparent incompleteness of its sequence in the bottom right corner put this image in the direct continuity of the Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster).
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly important Warhol was sold for $ 105M including premium.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1963 The King and the Bad Boy
2014 SOLD for $ 82M including premium
After exploiting the adoration of the public for two actresses, Marilyn and Liz, Andy Warhol looked at the male actors. OnNovember 12 in New York, Christie's sells two of his most outstanding works in this theme, the Triple Elvis (Ferus Type) and the Quadruple Marlon. Both men, each in his own way, embodied the rebellion of the younger generation.
The 1963 exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles gave an opportunity for the artist to prepare multiple images of the King on a silver background that evoked the movie screen. On 9 May 2012, Sotheby's sold for $ 37M including premium a Double Elvis (Ferus Type), 208 x 122 cm, for which the inequality of density of the two identical figures brings a feeling of frenzy.
For the Triple Elvis, lot 9 of the next sale, 208 x 173 cm, the three overlapping figures are of equal density but the momentum is provided by their unequal interval.
To honor Marlon in 1966, Andy uses an untreated canvas that enhances the brilliance. On most images, rarer than Elvis, the Bad Boy is a rebel confined to the right side of the canvas.
A Double Marlon 213 x 243 cm, was sold for $ 32M including premium at Christie's on 13 May 2008. The Four Marlons, lot 10 of the next sale, 206 x 165 cm, is the only in this series for which the image occupies the entire surface in two rows of two pictures.
Both lots, to be sold separately, come from a German collection built for decorating a casino. The press release of September 10 announced a global estimate in the region of $ 130M for the two lots.
I invite you to play the two videos shared by Christie's: Elvis andMarlon.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Triple Elvis : 82M
Four Marlons : 70M
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
The 1963 exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles gave an opportunity for the artist to prepare multiple images of the King on a silver background that evoked the movie screen. On 9 May 2012, Sotheby's sold for $ 37M including premium a Double Elvis (Ferus Type), 208 x 122 cm, for which the inequality of density of the two identical figures brings a feeling of frenzy.
For the Triple Elvis, lot 9 of the next sale, 208 x 173 cm, the three overlapping figures are of equal density but the momentum is provided by their unequal interval.
To honor Marlon in 1966, Andy uses an untreated canvas that enhances the brilliance. On most images, rarer than Elvis, the Bad Boy is a rebel confined to the right side of the canvas.
A Double Marlon 213 x 243 cm, was sold for $ 32M including premium at Christie's on 13 May 2008. The Four Marlons, lot 10 of the next sale, 206 x 165 cm, is the only in this series for which the image occupies the entire surface in two rows of two pictures.
Both lots, to be sold separately, come from a German collection built for decorating a casino. The press release of September 10 announced a global estimate in the region of $ 130M for the two lots.
I invite you to play the two videos shared by Christie's: Elvis andMarlon.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Triple Elvis : 82M
Four Marlons : 70M
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1963 The Unwanted Contribution of Picasso to Pop Art
2013 SOLD 56 M$ including premium
In 1961, around Leo Castelli, the Abstract Expressionism is already going to saturation. New ideas were required. By exploring the pop art, Lichtenstein and Warhol demonstrated that despite Duchamp, despite the Surrealists, despite the Bauhaus, the modern imaging was still to be created.
Each one in his own way, these two competing artists designed images that the public can understand and love, inspired by consumerism, magazines, posters and comics.
From those early days, Roy Lichtenstein appropriates works of art. He wants to identify this action as a tribute to his predecessors, but his approach is too subtle for believing such a statement.
Picasso expressed deep feelings with a perfectly mastered drawing and adjusted colors. Lichtenstein's genius is to appreciate that Picasso's art is recognizable by the general public, but too complicated to retain. He plagiarizes it, bringing his personal techniques with colors alternately flat and by dots.
Dora Maar is the woman with flowered hat, painted by Picasso in 1939-1940. As Lichtenstein painted her in 1963, she had become pitiful to earn her place in the popular imaging.
The Lichtenstein canvas, 127 x 102 cm, is one of the most illustrative examples of Pop Art. It is for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15 The press release tells that it is expected in excess of $ 30M. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, $ 56M including premium, may seem huge for an appropriation. It reinforces the fact that the pop art of the early 1960s was one of the most important artistic revolutions.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
Each one in his own way, these two competing artists designed images that the public can understand and love, inspired by consumerism, magazines, posters and comics.
From those early days, Roy Lichtenstein appropriates works of art. He wants to identify this action as a tribute to his predecessors, but his approach is too subtle for believing such a statement.
Picasso expressed deep feelings with a perfectly mastered drawing and adjusted colors. Lichtenstein's genius is to appreciate that Picasso's art is recognizable by the general public, but too complicated to retain. He plagiarizes it, bringing his personal techniques with colors alternately flat and by dots.
Dora Maar is the woman with flowered hat, painted by Picasso in 1939-1940. As Lichtenstein painted her in 1963, she had become pitiful to earn her place in the popular imaging.
The Lichtenstein canvas, 127 x 102 cm, is one of the most illustrative examples of Pop Art. It is for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15 The press release tells that it is expected in excess of $ 30M. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, $ 56M including premium, may seem huge for an appropriation. It reinforces the fact that the pop art of the early 1960s was one of the most important artistic revolutions.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1963 The Solemn Visit of Mona Lisa in America
2015 SOLD for $ 56M including premium
Mona Lisa made a solemn visit to the United States in early 1963. The painting was received by the President and Mrs. Kennedy with the honors due to a queen. Its stay was managed in two steps: the National Gallery in Washington and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
This event is a triumph for culture and for trans-Atlantic friendship. Jacqueline Kennedy who thought and required this operation has a European sensibility and desires to fight America's reputation of cultural backwardness. André Malraux, French Minister of Culture, accepted the risk.
The American art is changing. Andy Warhol, like Norman Rockwell before him, is attentive to all symbols that can move the Americans. His technique of silkscreen art is developed. Executed in the previous year, the anaglyphic Statue of Liberty was already a synthesis of his blending of culture, politics and art.
A curator at the Metropolitan invited Warhol to interpret Mona Lisa. This approach is highly remarkable because Andy was still unknown two years earlier. It demonstrates the impulse and the need of the Americans to enter modern life during the Kennedy presidency.
Andy chooses three themes from a picture taken in a magazine: full image, bust and hands, and realizes the screens in several sizes. He mixes the screens in all orthogonal positions, even overlapping some of them, and separately uses with no addition the four basic colors of printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The famous Leonardo's picture confronts altogether the techniques and the disorders of the industrial civilization.
The largest multiple Mona Lisa realized by Warhol, 320 x 208 cm, is for sale at Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 26B. The estimate is not published, but this lot is expected in the region of $ 40M. Warhol's Liberty referred above was sold for $ 43,7M including premium by Christie's on November 14, 2012.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
This event is a triumph for culture and for trans-Atlantic friendship. Jacqueline Kennedy who thought and required this operation has a European sensibility and desires to fight America's reputation of cultural backwardness. André Malraux, French Minister of Culture, accepted the risk.
The American art is changing. Andy Warhol, like Norman Rockwell before him, is attentive to all symbols that can move the Americans. His technique of silkscreen art is developed. Executed in the previous year, the anaglyphic Statue of Liberty was already a synthesis of his blending of culture, politics and art.
A curator at the Metropolitan invited Warhol to interpret Mona Lisa. This approach is highly remarkable because Andy was still unknown two years earlier. It demonstrates the impulse and the need of the Americans to enter modern life during the Kennedy presidency.
Andy chooses three themes from a picture taken in a magazine: full image, bust and hands, and realizes the screens in several sizes. He mixes the screens in all orthogonal positions, even overlapping some of them, and separately uses with no addition the four basic colors of printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The famous Leonardo's picture confronts altogether the techniques and the disorders of the industrial civilization.
The largest multiple Mona Lisa realized by Warhol, 320 x 208 cm, is for sale at Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 26B. The estimate is not published, but this lot is expected in the region of $ 40M. Warhol's Liberty referred above was sold for $ 43,7M including premium by Christie's on November 14, 2012.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
1963 Elvis after the Soup
2019 SOLD for $ 53M including premium
There is indeed a place for contemporary art in Los Angeles. In 1957 Walter Hopps founds the Ferus Gallery. Ferus is a word that sounds good and is easily spelled, like Kodak used to be for Eastman. In New York around Castelli, Pop Art becomes the wonder of the time. Irving Blum joins Ferus and ensures from 1958 the link with the east coast.
In 1962 Blum exhibits at Ferus the complete series of 32 Campbell's Soup Cans by Andy Warhol. The introduction of mechanized techniques into a creative process is incongruous and even scandalous. The promises of sale are so low that Blum buys the full set. It has not been disjointed and is currently at the MoMA.
Blum perseveres. In 1963 Ferus again dedicates an exhibition to Warhol's series. The new theme is provided by the cinema, the specialty of Los Angeles : Warhol exhibits Elvis and Liz.
In this exhibition all the images of Elvis Presley originate from a single 1960 newspaper clipping promoting a film titled Flaming Star. Featured as a cowboy, Elvis is standing full front, the gun in his right hand. This image is now identified as the Elvis - Ferus Type.
Andy made all these impressions on a silver paint which symbolises the screen of a movie theater. He prepares them as a single roll 2.08 m high. The images are irregularly spaced and sometimes overlapping. The artist sends the uncut roll to Ferus with the frames, with no other instruction than to make a very dense display of all this set. He has too much work to participate in the mounting and refuses Blum's invitation.
22 Ferus Type paintings have survived, with single, double or multiple figures. A Triple was sold for $ 82M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014. An unusual Double with one of the images in a poor impression was sold by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012 and by Christie's on May 17, 2018, each time for $ 37M including premium.
A Double Elvis in a normally contrasted overlapping, 208 x 122 cm, is estimated $ 50M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 23 B.
In 1962 Blum exhibits at Ferus the complete series of 32 Campbell's Soup Cans by Andy Warhol. The introduction of mechanized techniques into a creative process is incongruous and even scandalous. The promises of sale are so low that Blum buys the full set. It has not been disjointed and is currently at the MoMA.
Blum perseveres. In 1963 Ferus again dedicates an exhibition to Warhol's series. The new theme is provided by the cinema, the specialty of Los Angeles : Warhol exhibits Elvis and Liz.
In this exhibition all the images of Elvis Presley originate from a single 1960 newspaper clipping promoting a film titled Flaming Star. Featured as a cowboy, Elvis is standing full front, the gun in his right hand. This image is now identified as the Elvis - Ferus Type.
Andy made all these impressions on a silver paint which symbolises the screen of a movie theater. He prepares them as a single roll 2.08 m high. The images are irregularly spaced and sometimes overlapping. The artist sends the uncut roll to Ferus with the frames, with no other instruction than to make a very dense display of all this set. He has too much work to participate in the mounting and refuses Blum's invitation.
22 Ferus Type paintings have survived, with single, double or multiple figures. A Triple was sold for $ 82M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014. An unusual Double with one of the images in a poor impression was sold by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012 and by Christie's on May 17, 2018, each time for $ 37M including premium.
A Double Elvis in a normally contrasted overlapping, 208 x 122 cm, is estimated $ 50M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 23 B.
1963 Sir George and the Petty Thief
2017 SOLD for $ 52M including premium
At the turn of the 1960s the art world is demanding changes. Abstraction has taken up too much space and cancels the psychological observation. Francis Bacon then enjoys the top level of fame to such an extent that his sado-masochistic impulses are reversed : after Peter Lacy's death, Francis desires to dominate a young male muse.
George Dyer meets perfectly this new need. His powerful body evokes the masculine nudes sculpted by Michelangelo. His shabby life as a petty thief innocent of art excites Francis who creates the unverifiable story of their first encounter in 1963 during a burglary in his studio. Francis sometimes nicknames 'Sir George' this magnificent lover.
George has a weak personality that he vainly tries to offset by tobacco, drugs and alcohol. The colossus with feet of clay becomes for Francis a subject of study of the human contradictions. As ever Francis seeks through his models the mirror of his own complexity.
Francis grabs his brushes to deepen this new quest. He likes the series on a homogeneous background for their possibility of varying the expression. His very first study for a portrait of George is a triptych of 35 x 30 cm elements displaying the head in life size, painted in 1963.
Francis twists nose and cheeks and adds vivid colors to better reveal the tensions but the overall features remain perfectly superimposable to the photographs of George. On a black background and with no information on the garment, this triple head that comes out of the shadows with an empty gaze is one of the most profound testimonies by Bacon on the psychological misery.
This triptych is sold by Christie's in New York on May 17, lot 38 B in the post-war and contemporary art evening sale. This lot is the subject of a special publication in 134 pages with an introduction by Brett Gorvy. The February 24 press release announces an estimate between $ 50M and $ 70M. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
George Dyer meets perfectly this new need. His powerful body evokes the masculine nudes sculpted by Michelangelo. His shabby life as a petty thief innocent of art excites Francis who creates the unverifiable story of their first encounter in 1963 during a burglary in his studio. Francis sometimes nicknames 'Sir George' this magnificent lover.
George has a weak personality that he vainly tries to offset by tobacco, drugs and alcohol. The colossus with feet of clay becomes for Francis a subject of study of the human contradictions. As ever Francis seeks through his models the mirror of his own complexity.
Francis grabs his brushes to deepen this new quest. He likes the series on a homogeneous background for their possibility of varying the expression. His very first study for a portrait of George is a triptych of 35 x 30 cm elements displaying the head in life size, painted in 1963.
Francis twists nose and cheeks and adds vivid colors to better reveal the tensions but the overall features remain perfectly superimposable to the photographs of George. On a black background and with no information on the garment, this triple head that comes out of the shadows with an empty gaze is one of the most profound testimonies by Bacon on the psychological misery.
This triptych is sold by Christie's in New York on May 17, lot 38 B in the post-war and contemporary art evening sale. This lot is the subject of a special publication in 134 pages with an introduction by Brett Gorvy. The February 24 press release announces an estimate between $ 50M and $ 70M. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
1963 How Francis viewed Henrietta
2015 SOLD for $ 48M including premium
A portrait of Henrietta Moraes by Francis Bacon was sold for £ 21.3M including premium by Christie's on February 14, 2012. It comes back for sale on May 13 in New York, also at Christie's, lot 23B.
Here is my previous discussion (slightly modified) of this lot :
They were not only boys in Soho drinking clubs. Francis Bacon looks at the girls although he is not sexually concerned with them.
They do not sit in his studio. He requires the photos by John Deakin to prepare the paintings of these friends but it is his usual practice for males or females, in close up faces or full length in the nude.
His two muses are Muriel Belcher and Henrietta Moraes. A painting made in 1961, showing one of them or a mixing of both, was sold for £ 8.3 million including premium by Sotheby's on 29 June 2011. In discussing this work in this column, I had indicated that the woman looked like a crouching piece of meat.
The figure of Henrietta coming for sale is an oil on canvas 165 x 142 cm painted in 1963. Perhaps in an effort to appreciate heterosexuality, the artist displays the woman naked on a bed with a pillow.
Henrietta, 33 years old, is not a monster. Francis appreciated that fact and this painting in lavish colors is a rare example of female eroticism in his art.
Here is my previous discussion (slightly modified) of this lot :
They were not only boys in Soho drinking clubs. Francis Bacon looks at the girls although he is not sexually concerned with them.
They do not sit in his studio. He requires the photos by John Deakin to prepare the paintings of these friends but it is his usual practice for males or females, in close up faces or full length in the nude.
His two muses are Muriel Belcher and Henrietta Moraes. A painting made in 1961, showing one of them or a mixing of both, was sold for £ 8.3 million including premium by Sotheby's on 29 June 2011. In discussing this work in this column, I had indicated that the woman looked like a crouching piece of meat.
The figure of Henrietta coming for sale is an oil on canvas 165 x 142 cm painted in 1963. Perhaps in an effort to appreciate heterosexuality, the artist displays the woman naked on a bed with a pillow.
Henrietta, 33 years old, is not a monster. Francis appreciated that fact and this painting in lavish colors is a rare example of female eroticism in his art.
1963 Unlimited Landscape by Pan Tianshou
2018 SOLD for RMB 290M including premium by China Guardian
1963 The King in Motion
2018 SOLD for $ 37 M including premium
After the proliferation of his Marilyns in 1962 Andy Warhol tries to simulate the cinema even closer. He uses a silver paint that mimics the screens of the theaters. His signature technique based on silkscreen printing makes it easy to obtain multiple images that evoke the film strip or the movement.
There is no better candidate than the King of Rock and Roll to simulate a trepidation. Andy chooses a picture of Elvis Presley from a 1960 Western. The actor in the classic position of a movie cowboy is standing in front, legs apart and ready to shoot.
From this unique image Andy creates multiples with which he covers in a tight arrangement the walls of the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in September and October 1963. 22 artworks of this series are extant.
Some Elvis's by Warhol more specifically offer an illusion of movement. Although the original image is unique, the layout of a multiple reminds Marey, Muybridge and the Nude descending the staircase by Duchamp. A Triple Elvis 208 x 173 cm with uneven interval between the figures was sold for $ 82M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014.
The Double Elvis 208 x 122 cm sold for $ 37M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012 is audacious. The big difference of contrast between the two overlapping printings creates an illusion of flicker. In discussing this artwork before that sale, I observed that the frenetic bustle of rock and roll is still perfectly personified by Warhol's Double Elvis half a century later.
That Double Elvis will be sold as lot 9 B by Christie's in New York on May 17. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
There is no better candidate than the King of Rock and Roll to simulate a trepidation. Andy chooses a picture of Elvis Presley from a 1960 Western. The actor in the classic position of a movie cowboy is standing in front, legs apart and ready to shoot.
From this unique image Andy creates multiples with which he covers in a tight arrangement the walls of the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in September and October 1963. 22 artworks of this series are extant.
Some Elvis's by Warhol more specifically offer an illusion of movement. Although the original image is unique, the layout of a multiple reminds Marey, Muybridge and the Nude descending the staircase by Duchamp. A Triple Elvis 208 x 173 cm with uneven interval between the figures was sold for $ 82M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014.
The Double Elvis 208 x 122 cm sold for $ 37M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012 is audacious. The big difference of contrast between the two overlapping printings creates an illusion of flicker. In discussing this artwork before that sale, I observed that the frenetic bustle of rock and roll is still perfectly personified by Warhol's Double Elvis half a century later.
That Double Elvis will be sold as lot 9 B by Christie's in New York on May 17. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1963 The Colors of Liz
2014 SOLD for $ 31.5M including premium
Andy Warhol has built much of his initial fame with a single image of Marilyn and a single image of Liz, taken from magazines. They however did not have the same role in the development of his business.
The first Marilyns from 1962 are experimental. Andy's idea is to mix the techniques of acrylic and silkscreen. He makes his hand in a variety of processes, dimensions and positioning of the image that is sometimes already multiplied in juxtaposition on a single canvas.
The Liz selected during the summer of 1963 opens the use of paint for a multiple reproduction with fixed dimensions. She is first seen on a background of silver painting, referring to the movie screens. A first pass of screen printing provides a mark for the colors: pink skin, red mouth, turquoise eye shadows. A second screen printing brings the deep black lines and hair.
In November 1963, Andy is preparing an exhibition of 101 x 101 cm Liz's which will be similar excepted the background color. The paintings used in this exhibition are numbered from 1 to 6. Seven additional specimens were not numbered. The series is identified as the Early Colored Liz.
In the following year, Andy uses his Liz in printed editions, again with backgrounds from various colors.
The Early Colored Liz number 5 on turquoise background was sold for $ 27M including premium by Phillips de Pury on May 12, 2011. The number 1 in a too bright yellow settled at $ 20.3M including premium on November 13, 2013 at Sotheby's (sold). An unnumbered turquoise was sold for $ 23.5M including premium at Christie's on November 13, 2007.
The Early Colored Liz number 3 with green background will be sold on November 11 by Sotheby's in New York, lot 27.
The first Marilyns from 1962 are experimental. Andy's idea is to mix the techniques of acrylic and silkscreen. He makes his hand in a variety of processes, dimensions and positioning of the image that is sometimes already multiplied in juxtaposition on a single canvas.
The Liz selected during the summer of 1963 opens the use of paint for a multiple reproduction with fixed dimensions. She is first seen on a background of silver painting, referring to the movie screens. A first pass of screen printing provides a mark for the colors: pink skin, red mouth, turquoise eye shadows. A second screen printing brings the deep black lines and hair.
In November 1963, Andy is preparing an exhibition of 101 x 101 cm Liz's which will be similar excepted the background color. The paintings used in this exhibition are numbered from 1 to 6. Seven additional specimens were not numbered. The series is identified as the Early Colored Liz.
In the following year, Andy uses his Liz in printed editions, again with backgrounds from various colors.
The Early Colored Liz number 5 on turquoise background was sold for $ 27M including premium by Phillips de Pury on May 12, 2011. The number 1 in a too bright yellow settled at $ 20.3M including premium on November 13, 2013 at Sotheby's (sold). An unnumbered turquoise was sold for $ 23.5M including premium at Christie's on November 13, 2007.
The Early Colored Liz number 3 with green background will be sold on November 11 by Sotheby's in New York, lot 27.
1963-1965 Liz on a Wider Screen
2015 SOLD for $ 28M including premium
Andy Warhol was a clever businessman of his own art. In 1963, when he executed his series of Liz Taylor pictures, he made it as multiple single paintings of the same design instead of positioning many images on one canvas.
He maintained however the illusion of wall advertising by exhibiting side by side the similar elements of the group. Afterwards each artwork could be sold separately by the owner of the set.
On May 11, 2010, Sotheby's sold for $ 18.3M including premium the Silver Liz diptych. It had been discussed in this column at that time. It is now estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 11, lot 19A.
This specimen has a specific history. It was included in the exhibition of ten Silver Liz 101 x 101 cm at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in September-October 1963. When he prepared another exhibition to be held in Philadelphia in 1965, Andy recuperated this specific copy and flanked it on its left with a blank canvas of same size and same silver shade.
In this new configuration which has never been disassembled, the Silver Liz diptych remained a tribute to Liz while also imitating the wide screens of the movie theaters.
He maintained however the illusion of wall advertising by exhibiting side by side the similar elements of the group. Afterwards each artwork could be sold separately by the owner of the set.
On May 11, 2010, Sotheby's sold for $ 18.3M including premium the Silver Liz diptych. It had been discussed in this column at that time. It is now estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 11, lot 19A.
This specimen has a specific history. It was included in the exhibition of ten Silver Liz 101 x 101 cm at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in September-October 1963. When he prepared another exhibition to be held in Philadelphia in 1965, Andy recuperated this specific copy and flanked it on its left with a blank canvas of same size and same silver shade.
In this new configuration which has never been disassembled, the Silver Liz diptych remained a tribute to Liz while also imitating the wide screens of the movie theaters.
