USA by Warhol
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : USA Warhol Groups Animals
Chronology : 1960-1969 1962 1963 1964
See also : USA Warhol Groups Animals
Chronology : 1960-1969 1962 1963 1964
1962 Coca-Cola
Intro
In 1962, Warhol's art focuses on the American consumer society synthesized in four themes: the dollar, Marilyn, the soup cans and the bottles of Coca-Cola.
Coming from the advertising, he now stands out completely. The Campbell's soup cans have an extraordinary feature : the box is singled in the image, with no added text and nothing to embellish. The models differ only by their labels.
The artist turns advertising into derision. He painted the same year a Campbell's can torn to be destroyed. This remarkable indicator of the artistic intention of Warhol has been sold for $ 11.7M by Christie's on May 9, 2006, despite its small size, 51 x 41 cm.
For Warhol, the Coca-Cola bottle in a single model with no variant is the common point between all Americans without any social distinction. The US President, Liz Taylor and the observer of the art of Warhol see and use this object in the same way. It is a symbol of equality. At the same time, Warhol is also studying the soup cans which he stages in incredible positions with dimensions similar to those of humans.
Equality is socially too important for joking, and the bottle of Coca-Cola, even when oversized, remains standing with the utmost seriousness. For this reason, variations are not appropriate and this bottle is the rarest among the top iconic symbols of the first year of Warhol.
The early Coca-Colas by Warhol are made singly by hand in black, without recourse to the silkscreen.
Soup and coke were linked in the mind of Warhol. A simple watercolored drawing, 60 x 45 cm, also made in 1962, shows the can upside down over the neck of the bottle. It was sold for $ 2.8M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007.
Coming from the advertising, he now stands out completely. The Campbell's soup cans have an extraordinary feature : the box is singled in the image, with no added text and nothing to embellish. The models differ only by their labels.
The artist turns advertising into derision. He painted the same year a Campbell's can torn to be destroyed. This remarkable indicator of the artistic intention of Warhol has been sold for $ 11.7M by Christie's on May 9, 2006, despite its small size, 51 x 41 cm.
For Warhol, the Coca-Cola bottle in a single model with no variant is the common point between all Americans without any social distinction. The US President, Liz Taylor and the observer of the art of Warhol see and use this object in the same way. It is a symbol of equality. At the same time, Warhol is also studying the soup cans which he stages in incredible positions with dimensions similar to those of humans.
Equality is socially too important for joking, and the bottle of Coca-Cola, even when oversized, remains standing with the utmost seriousness. For this reason, variations are not appropriate and this bottle is the rarest among the top iconic symbols of the first year of Warhol.
The early Coca-Colas by Warhol are made singly by hand in black, without recourse to the silkscreen.
Soup and coke were linked in the mind of Warhol. A simple watercolored drawing, 60 x 45 cm, also made in 1962, shows the can upside down over the neck of the bottle. It was sold for $ 2.8M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007.
1
(3)
2012 SOLD for $ 57M by Christie's
The idea of multiples is already another key of the world of Warhol. Coca-Cola (3), casein on cotton 176 x 137 cm, has exactly the same figure as (4) but in a smaller size.
(3) was sold for $ 57M from a lower estimate of $ 40M by Christie's on November 12, 2012. This artwork is illustrated in the article shared by Bloomberg.
(3) was sold for $ 57M from a lower estimate of $ 40M by Christie's on November 12, 2012. This artwork is illustrated in the article shared by Bloomberg.
2
(4)
2010 SOLD for $ 35M by Sotheby's
Coca-Cola (4), acrylic on canvas 208 x 144 cm, is the largest painting done on this subject in period.
It was sold for $ 35M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2010. It is illustrated in the article shared by The New York Times.
It was sold for $ 35M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2010. It is illustrated in the article shared by The New York Times.
March-April 1962 One Dollar Bills
2009 SOLD for $ 44M by Sotheby's
What is more repetitive in everyday life than a banknote? At least, everyone wants it so. What could more easily attract the attention of an American middleman than his $ 1 ticket?
There is no doubt that Andy Warhol loved dollars, not just to fill his pockets but mainly as an undeniable symbol of modern America. He was also busy to create his own legend. Stories about his inspiration on this theme are certainly apocryphal.
On July 1, 2015, Sotheby's listed a wide selection of dollar paintings made by Warhol throughout his career, at first in the form of images of bills and later by more or less fanciful representations of the sign.
In early 1962 One Dollar Bill (silver certificate) is the gigantic cut down image of the front side of a one dollar bill. This casein and pencil on linen, 132 x 182 cm, was the first artwork made by Warhol on this theme and his only dollar painted entirely by hand. It is also contemporary with the series painted by hand of the variations on the soup cans. One Dollar Bill was sold for £ 21M, lot 24.
March - April 1962 is Warhol's breakthrough phase. He then operates at all scales the fruitful idea of multiples, for which he is helped by the silkscreen printing technique in two complementary ways : separation of similar works with variations of colors, and juxtaposition of identical patterns on the same work.
The monumental 200 One Dollar Bills, 203 x 234 cm, showing 200 front sides in twenty rows of ten notes each without interval was sold for $ 44M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2009. The image, unspectacular on the web, is shared by AuctionPublicity.
There is no doubt that Andy Warhol loved dollars, not just to fill his pockets but mainly as an undeniable symbol of modern America. He was also busy to create his own legend. Stories about his inspiration on this theme are certainly apocryphal.
On July 1, 2015, Sotheby's listed a wide selection of dollar paintings made by Warhol throughout his career, at first in the form of images of bills and later by more or less fanciful representations of the sign.
In early 1962 One Dollar Bill (silver certificate) is the gigantic cut down image of the front side of a one dollar bill. This casein and pencil on linen, 132 x 182 cm, was the first artwork made by Warhol on this theme and his only dollar painted entirely by hand. It is also contemporary with the series painted by hand of the variations on the soup cans. One Dollar Bill was sold for £ 21M, lot 24.
March - April 1962 is Warhol's breakthrough phase. He then operates at all scales the fruitful idea of multiples, for which he is helped by the silkscreen printing technique in two complementary ways : separation of similar works with variations of colors, and juxtaposition of identical patterns on the same work.
The monumental 200 One Dollar Bills, 203 x 234 cm, showing 200 front sides in twenty rows of ten notes each without interval was sold for $ 44M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2009. The image, unspectacular on the web, is shared by AuctionPublicity.
1962 Statue of Liberty
2012 SOLD for $ 44M by Christie's
For Warhol, in 1962, all experiences, all messages are possible. His artistic language is entirely new.
The use of silkscreen ink applied to the enlargement of a trivial photograph is the decisive creative invention of Warhol. It allows the endless repetition of the same image, with a speed of execution that quickly diversifies the catalog of the artist. It is not to be considered as a print due to the variants from a completed artwork to another and also because of the finish with spray enamel and graphite.
But what does exactly want this former designer of ads? Present to the world a publicity for America, or deride its consumer society? Exalt the hope of a sheltered life, or exacerbate the futility of politics?
If there were only stars and soup cans, Warhol's message is simple. Disasters, electric chairs, car crashes put everything into question. Executed in 1962, Warhol's Statue of Liberty anticipates all the social gnashing of his art. In our world, everything is false.
The symbol is present, as in reality, off Manhattan. Warhol well knows that the multiplicity of images kills emotion. Thanks to his screen printing technique, he kills the hope of Liberty by aligning 4 rows of 6 identical images.
Warhol knows that painting is an illusory representation of the three-dimensional reality of the world. Each of the 24 units of Miss Liberty is treated in green and red like an anaglyph, but the two views are from one single postcard. The viewer with his stereoscopic glasses marvels at a false illusion of 3D due to inequality of the finish.
This canvas 198 x 206 cm was sold for $ 44M by Christie's on November 14, 2012, lot 35.
The use of silkscreen ink applied to the enlargement of a trivial photograph is the decisive creative invention of Warhol. It allows the endless repetition of the same image, with a speed of execution that quickly diversifies the catalog of the artist. It is not to be considered as a print due to the variants from a completed artwork to another and also because of the finish with spray enamel and graphite.
But what does exactly want this former designer of ads? Present to the world a publicity for America, or deride its consumer society? Exalt the hope of a sheltered life, or exacerbate the futility of politics?
If there were only stars and soup cans, Warhol's message is simple. Disasters, electric chairs, car crashes put everything into question. Executed in 1962, Warhol's Statue of Liberty anticipates all the social gnashing of his art. In our world, everything is false.
The symbol is present, as in reality, off Manhattan. Warhol well knows that the multiplicity of images kills emotion. Thanks to his screen printing technique, he kills the hope of Liberty by aligning 4 rows of 6 identical images.
Warhol knows that painting is an illusory representation of the three-dimensional reality of the world. Each of the 24 units of Miss Liberty is treated in green and red like an anaglyph, but the two views are from one single postcard. The viewer with his stereoscopic glasses marvels at a false illusion of 3D due to inequality of the finish.
This canvas 198 x 206 cm was sold for $ 44M by Christie's on November 14, 2012, lot 35.
1963 Car Crash
Intro
Andy Warhol achieves fame in 1962 by collecting and repeating images of consumer items and movie stars. The effect on his own psyche is negative : he keeps the impression of being alone in facing the risk of a sudden death. His daily practice of Catholicism will never allow him to overcome this morbid terror.
The American dream is not enough to express the world. Automobile is very popular in the USA, and a symbol of freedom. Car crash claims the death of more than 100 people per day. The readers of the newspapers do not feel concerned by the horrible news and illustrations from the disaster.
Andy reacts against this social issue that hurts his Catholic devotion. In 1963 he begins his Death and Disaster themes. He re-screens the images of the most terrible car accidents. The series also includes his blame against the electric chair. He would say much later: "Nobody in America has a normal life".
The American dream is not enough to express the world. Automobile is very popular in the USA, and a symbol of freedom. Car crash claims the death of more than 100 people per day. The readers of the newspapers do not feel concerned by the horrible news and illustrations from the disaster.
Andy reacts against this social issue that hurts his Catholic devotion. In 1963 he begins his Death and Disaster themes. He re-screens the images of the most terrible car accidents. The series also includes his blame against the electric chair. He would say much later: "Nobody in America has a normal life".
1
Silver Car Crash
2013 SOLD for $ 105M by Sotheby's
On November 13, 2013, Sotheby's sold for $ 105M from a lower estimate of $ 60M Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), a diptych 267 x 416 cm overall, lot 16.
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.
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).
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.
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).
2
White Disaster
2022 SOLD for $ 85M by Sotheby's
White Disaster, subtitled White Car Crash 19 Times, executed by Warhol in 1963, is unquestionably the culmination of his Car Crash sub-series and arguably the culmination of his Death and Disaster theme.
This work is monumental, 370 x 210 cm, requiring to be viewed from below. The next larger Car Crash items are the diptych Double Disaster (Silver Car Crash), 230 cm high with the right element left blank, sold for $ 105M by Sotheby's in 2013, and the 270 x 420 cm Orange Car Crash 19 Times kept at the MoMA.
White Disaster is made of a single image printed 19 times in 7 rows of 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 3 in a chilling irregular contour. The frames in a row are slightly overlapping. They may have been variously contrasted.
Its single image displays a crushed car with a seated dead person viewed through the side door opened by the crash. Such a clearly outlined figure in a dead position within the car is rare in the rest of the series. The dead man of the Burning car sub-series had been ejected by that crash.
White Disaster is made in silkscreen ink and graphite on primed canvas with no color pigment. It is a difference with the Silver Car Crash prepared in silver spray paint. Some other works are orange or green.
White is the most terrible choice because it reminds a newspaper and because it is the race of the dead old person. Such a disaster was so common in the USA of the 1960s that the source of the image has not been retrieved.
White Disaster was sold for $ 85M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2022, lot 114.
This work is monumental, 370 x 210 cm, requiring to be viewed from below. The next larger Car Crash items are the diptych Double Disaster (Silver Car Crash), 230 cm high with the right element left blank, sold for $ 105M by Sotheby's in 2013, and the 270 x 420 cm Orange Car Crash 19 Times kept at the MoMA.
White Disaster is made of a single image printed 19 times in 7 rows of 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 3 in a chilling irregular contour. The frames in a row are slightly overlapping. They may have been variously contrasted.
Its single image displays a crushed car with a seated dead person viewed through the side door opened by the crash. Such a clearly outlined figure in a dead position within the car is rare in the rest of the series. The dead man of the Burning car sub-series had been ejected by that crash.
White Disaster is made in silkscreen ink and graphite on primed canvas with no color pigment. It is a difference with the Silver Car Crash prepared in silver spray paint. Some other works are orange or green.
White is the most terrible choice because it reminds a newspaper and because it is the race of the dead old person. Such a disaster was so common in the USA of the 1960s that the source of the image has not been retrieved.
White Disaster was sold for $ 85M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2022, lot 114.
3
Green Burning Car
2007 SOLD for $ 72M by Christie's
Warhol searches and finds in the newspapers the most horrible photos of car accidents. One of them is particularly atrocious. It shows an accident that just happened on a street in Seattle. Chased by the police, a car overturned and caught fire. The driver was thrown onto a stake, taking the position of a lynched man.
The worst element in this image is possibly not its violence. Just behind the dying man, a passerby quietly walks away, his hands in his pockets. Exploiting this indecency, Newsweek integrated this photo into an article on a social theme, in June 1963. We can imagine the horror that this image caused for the highly sensitive Andy.
Warhol used this specific photo four times in repeated screen prints on a white painted background and once on a gloomy pale green background. Green Car Crash, also named Green Burning Car I, is a 229 x 203 cm assembly of four columns and three rows of this image, with varied contrasts. The reading ends on the nothingness : the last block at the bottom right is blank.
Green Car Crash was sold for $ 72M by Christie's on May 16, 2007 from a lower estimate of $ 25M, lot 15.
The worst element in this image is possibly not its violence. Just behind the dying man, a passerby quietly walks away, his hands in his pockets. Exploiting this indecency, Newsweek integrated this photo into an article on a social theme, in June 1963. We can imagine the horror that this image caused for the highly sensitive Andy.
Warhol used this specific photo four times in repeated screen prints on a white painted background and once on a gloomy pale green background. Green Car Crash, also named Green Burning Car I, is a 229 x 203 cm assembly of four columns and three rows of this image, with varied contrasts. The reading ends on the nothingness : the last block at the bottom right is blank.
Green Car Crash was sold for $ 72M by Christie's on May 16, 2007 from a lower estimate of $ 25M, lot 15.
1964 Race Riot
2014 SOLD for $ 63M by Christie's
The publication by Life magazine on May 17, 1963 of photos of the repression of race riots in Alabama shocked America and the world. The United States are seen as a country in civil war. The land of racial hatred.
This report possibly had the strongest political impact in the history of the press. Kennedy understood that the reforms of laws and behaviors are inevitable. The road will be long, but civil peace will eventually settle. These photos made by Charles Moore for Associated Press are the Guernica of America.
At the same time, Andy Warhol releases the real meaning of his own artistic message. Consumerism is an artifact, advertising is a technique which however has the merit of having shown the expressive power of the multiple image.
Andy chose his press photos around the theme of death in America. The gathering of the Death and Disaster series reveals the true reason of the post mortem portrait of Marilyn. Warhol's message did not receive the same immediate impact as Guernica's. It took almost half a century before the multiples of the Car Crash are pushed toward the top position in the art of the twentieth century.
Recuperating the photos published by Life, the Race Riot by Warhol is his most political image, using a historical event in progress. He hates violence and fears death. The running Black is the victim, the dog excited to bite is the symbol of horror.
After painting a few units of the Race Riot, Warhol made in 1964 a multiple 2 x 2. In the top register, white color is the truth and blue is chilling. On the down side the double red is blood.
This quadruple Race Riot, 152 x 168 cm overall, was sold for $ 63M by Christie's on May 13, 2014.
This report possibly had the strongest political impact in the history of the press. Kennedy understood that the reforms of laws and behaviors are inevitable. The road will be long, but civil peace will eventually settle. These photos made by Charles Moore for Associated Press are the Guernica of America.
At the same time, Andy Warhol releases the real meaning of his own artistic message. Consumerism is an artifact, advertising is a technique which however has the merit of having shown the expressive power of the multiple image.
Andy chose his press photos around the theme of death in America. The gathering of the Death and Disaster series reveals the true reason of the post mortem portrait of Marilyn. Warhol's message did not receive the same immediate impact as Guernica's. It took almost half a century before the multiples of the Car Crash are pushed toward the top position in the art of the twentieth century.
Recuperating the photos published by Life, the Race Riot by Warhol is his most political image, using a historical event in progress. He hates violence and fears death. The running Black is the victim, the dog excited to bite is the symbol of horror.
After painting a few units of the Race Riot, Warhol made in 1964 a multiple 2 x 2. In the top register, white color is the truth and blue is chilling. On the down side the double red is blood.
This quadruple Race Riot, 152 x 168 cm overall, was sold for $ 63M by Christie's on May 13, 2014.
1964 Sixteen Jackies
2021 SOLD for $ 34M by Sotheby's
In 1964 Warhol desired to be acknowledged as a filmmaker.
His series of Jackies is a still report recuperating eight different images in the press coverage from the arrival in Dallas to President Kennedy's funeral in Washington DC. The artist reused these images as emotional portraits without displaying their original context.
The individual screenprints were serially made on 50 x 40 cm before being assembled as composite items. Their structure as grids, friezes, diptychs and triptychs enabled them to be reconstructed from one installation to the next.
This work was executed in 1964, the year after the death of the President, as a good example of the application of Death and Disaster in US life, to be also compared with the 1962 Men in her Life starring Liz Taylor, sold for $ 63M by Phillips de Pury in 2010. 24 Multiplied Jackies were exhibited in Philadelphia in October 1965.
Three colors were selected. The painted blue and the unpainted black prints express the sadness of the new widow while the painted gold was used as a tribute dominating the very first exhibited 4 x 4 assembly.
A Sixteen Jackies was sold by Christie's for $ 15.7M on November 15, 2006, lot 37, and for $ 34M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 12. It is made of 16 canvases from the Philadelphia exhibition for an overall size of 206 x 165 cm.
This 4 x 4 grid is using six images in respectively 4, 3, 3, 3, 2 and 1 examples, equally mixing eight blue and eight black and white reproductions without the rare gold variants.
A Sixteen Jackies in the same overall format was sold for $ 20.2M by Sotheby's on May 10, 2011, lot 21. Assembled by the consignor before 2001, it uses 7 of the 8 images through three panels in black and white, three painted in gold and the other ten painted in blue.
A 4 x 4 Sixteen Jackies was made by Warhol using a unique picture in the 16 panels. This assembly had been first exhibited in Toronto in 1969. Made in black and white and similar contrast settings, it is the only unpainted 4 x 4 example.
The source of this specific image was taken during the funeral. Her expression is stoic under a dark organdie veil which is canceled by the artist through an overexposure of the printing. A man is standing behind her from the second row of the procession..
This silkscreen ink on linen 203 x 163 cm was sold for $ 26M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 31 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
His series of Jackies is a still report recuperating eight different images in the press coverage from the arrival in Dallas to President Kennedy's funeral in Washington DC. The artist reused these images as emotional portraits without displaying their original context.
The individual screenprints were serially made on 50 x 40 cm before being assembled as composite items. Their structure as grids, friezes, diptychs and triptychs enabled them to be reconstructed from one installation to the next.
This work was executed in 1964, the year after the death of the President, as a good example of the application of Death and Disaster in US life, to be also compared with the 1962 Men in her Life starring Liz Taylor, sold for $ 63M by Phillips de Pury in 2010. 24 Multiplied Jackies were exhibited in Philadelphia in October 1965.
Three colors were selected. The painted blue and the unpainted black prints express the sadness of the new widow while the painted gold was used as a tribute dominating the very first exhibited 4 x 4 assembly.
A Sixteen Jackies was sold by Christie's for $ 15.7M on November 15, 2006, lot 37, and for $ 34M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 12. It is made of 16 canvases from the Philadelphia exhibition for an overall size of 206 x 165 cm.
This 4 x 4 grid is using six images in respectively 4, 3, 3, 3, 2 and 1 examples, equally mixing eight blue and eight black and white reproductions without the rare gold variants.
A Sixteen Jackies in the same overall format was sold for $ 20.2M by Sotheby's on May 10, 2011, lot 21. Assembled by the consignor before 2001, it uses 7 of the 8 images through three panels in black and white, three painted in gold and the other ten painted in blue.
A 4 x 4 Sixteen Jackies was made by Warhol using a unique picture in the 16 panels. This assembly had been first exhibited in Toronto in 1969. Made in black and white and similar contrast settings, it is the only unpainted 4 x 4 example.
The source of this specific image was taken during the funeral. Her expression is stoic under a dark organdie veil which is canceled by the artist through an overexposure of the printing. A man is standing behind her from the second row of the procession..
This silkscreen ink on linen 203 x 163 cm was sold for $ 26M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 31 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1964 Most Wanted Men No. 11
2018 SOLD for $ 28.4M by Christie's
In 1964 the World's Fair of New York is dedicated to progress, like any other. Several artists are invited to decorate the exterior wall of the New York State pavilion. This will be the first and last public commission attributed to Andy Warhol, the rest of the story shows why.
Warhol's concerns run counter to the required optimism. He had started in the previous year his Death and Disaster series showing off the bad side of America. He cannot install his electric chairs or car crashes on this wall that will be seen by the public. He does not choose the empty chair but the portrait of the people who could go up on it.
A friend gave him a printed police booklet with pictures of the thirteen most wanted bandits and a short categorization of their crime. Most of the criminals have their two police photos, face and profile, with the Ben-day dots. Andy makes giant silkscreens 125 x 97 cm from these small images.
He assembles his mural in five rows of five columns that form a disturbing set with a total of 22 actual images. The viewer can play to find which figures are shown only once. Any couple of photos is either joined or scattered. The three positions at the bottom right are empty according to the style that he had previously applied in the Car Crashes.
After discussion with the organizers, Andy covers all of that with an opaque layer of silver paint. The wall picture so disappears just before the opening of the Fair. Several hypotheses have been proposed. I would say that the FBI could not let an artist do the police work.
A little later in the same year, Warhol prepares from his preserved silkscreens the portraits of the bandits both as a single image and as a diptych, using the same numbering as the police notebook. A diptych of the Most Wanted Men No. 11, John Joseph H., Jr, was sold for $ 28.4M by Christie's on May 17, 2018, lot 15 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In this sinister face book, the robber John Joseph is one of the most disturbing because he appears as an ordinary man, young and handsome. The author of a gang attack with armed hands in a liquor store, he offended the police by escaping before his trial. A gangster remains a man : if he is caught, should he be executed?
Warhol's concerns run counter to the required optimism. He had started in the previous year his Death and Disaster series showing off the bad side of America. He cannot install his electric chairs or car crashes on this wall that will be seen by the public. He does not choose the empty chair but the portrait of the people who could go up on it.
A friend gave him a printed police booklet with pictures of the thirteen most wanted bandits and a short categorization of their crime. Most of the criminals have their two police photos, face and profile, with the Ben-day dots. Andy makes giant silkscreens 125 x 97 cm from these small images.
He assembles his mural in five rows of five columns that form a disturbing set with a total of 22 actual images. The viewer can play to find which figures are shown only once. Any couple of photos is either joined or scattered. The three positions at the bottom right are empty according to the style that he had previously applied in the Car Crashes.
After discussion with the organizers, Andy covers all of that with an opaque layer of silver paint. The wall picture so disappears just before the opening of the Fair. Several hypotheses have been proposed. I would say that the FBI could not let an artist do the police work.
A little later in the same year, Warhol prepares from his preserved silkscreens the portraits of the bandits both as a single image and as a diptych, using the same numbering as the police notebook. A diptych of the Most Wanted Men No. 11, John Joseph H., Jr, was sold for $ 28.4M by Christie's on May 17, 2018, lot 15 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In this sinister face book, the robber John Joseph is one of the most disturbing because he appears as an ordinary man, young and handsome. The author of a gang attack with armed hands in a liquor store, he offended the police by escaping before his trial. A gangster remains a man : if he is caught, should he be executed?
