USA by Warhol
See also : Painting USA Warhol Later Warhols Cities Groups Animals
Chronology : 20th century 1960-1969 1962 1963 1964 1968
Chronology : 20th century 1960-1969 1962 1963 1964 1968
1962 Coca-Cola for Everybody
2012 SOLD 57 M$ including premium
1962 is the wonderful year of Andy Warhol, when he suddenly deploys all his artistic and social language. The bottle of Coca-Cola has a key role which he clearly explained.
For Warhol, this 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 great 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. Coca-Cola (4), acrylic on canvas 208 x 144 cm, was sold for $ 35.3 million including premium by Sotheby's on November 9, 2010.
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). Coca-Cola (3) is estimated $ 40M, for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12. This artwork is illustrated in the article shared by Bloomberg.
POST SALE COMMENT
This specimen number 3 of the most iconic series of Pop Art was sold for $ 57M including premium.
For Warhol, this 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 great 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. Coca-Cola (4), acrylic on canvas 208 x 144 cm, was sold for $ 35.3 million including premium by Sotheby's on November 9, 2010.
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). Coca-Cola (3) is estimated $ 40M, for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12. This artwork is illustrated in the article shared by Bloomberg.
POST SALE COMMENT
This specimen number 3 of the most iconic series of Pop Art was sold for $ 57M including premium.
1962 All the Dollars are for Warhol
2009 SOLD 43.7 M$ including premium
Sotheby's is announcing for their sale on November 11 in New York a very important artwork of Warhol, estimated $ 8 million. This painting on silkscreen is titled 200 One Dollar Bills.
The work dates from March - April 1962. That is important. 1962 is the year of the first exhibitions dedicated to the artist in Los Angeles and New York. Suddenly, from nowhere, appeared the Warholian founding themes of contemporary art: the Campbell's soup, Marilyn, the dollar.
Warhol's contribution is to introduce in art such popular images that are instantly recognizable by everyone, and yet are paintings. Doing it he actually created current art, or still better the art of the current world.
He operated at all scales the fruitful idea of multiples, for which he is helped by the silkscreen printing technique in two complementary ways: separate similar works with variations of colors, and juxtaposition of identical patterns on the same work.
We have here an example of the latter case: over a total area of 203 x 234 cm, the work shows banknotes in the amount and quantity indicated in the title, in twenty rows of ten units each, without interval. What's more repetitive in the life of every day than a banknote? At least, everyone wants it so. What could more easily attract the attention of an American middleman than his $ 1 ticket?
The following image, unspectacular on the web, is shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
This work is historical, the result confirms that fact: $ 43.7 million including premium.
Sotheby's had left running the much conservative estimate at $ 8 million. When viewing the smile of the star auctioneer of the company in the pre sale video presentation, it became obvious that something important was to happen.
The title I chose for my article was also prescient: the release of Sotheby's had convinced me.
Congratulation to Sotheby's.
The work dates from March - April 1962. That is important. 1962 is the year of the first exhibitions dedicated to the artist in Los Angeles and New York. Suddenly, from nowhere, appeared the Warholian founding themes of contemporary art: the Campbell's soup, Marilyn, the dollar.
Warhol's contribution is to introduce in art such popular images that are instantly recognizable by everyone, and yet are paintings. Doing it he actually created current art, or still better the art of the current world.
He operated at all scales the fruitful idea of multiples, for which he is helped by the silkscreen printing technique in two complementary ways: separate similar works with variations of colors, and juxtaposition of identical patterns on the same work.
We have here an example of the latter case: over a total area of 203 x 234 cm, the work shows banknotes in the amount and quantity indicated in the title, in twenty rows of ten units each, without interval. What's more repetitive in the life of every day than a banknote? At least, everyone wants it so. What could more easily attract the attention of an American middleman than his $ 1 ticket?
The following image, unspectacular on the web, is shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
This work is historical, the result confirms that fact: $ 43.7 million including premium.
Sotheby's had left running the much conservative estimate at $ 8 million. When viewing the smile of the star auctioneer of the company in the pre sale video presentation, it became obvious that something important was to happen.
The title I chose for my article was also prescient: the release of Sotheby's had convinced me.
Congratulation to Sotheby's.
1962 The Blurred Image of Liberty
2012 SOLD 43.7 M$ including premium
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 is for sale by Christie's on November 14 in New York. The logics would be that it is acknowledged as one of the key works of Warhol, in excess of $ 35M. The auction house has not published an estimate. Here is the link to the catalog.
I invite you to play the video featured by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This surprising artwork provides a final denial to whoever thinks that the art, personality and ambition of Warhol are simple to decode. This Statue of Liberty is one of the masterpieces of the first great year of the artist, as well as the 200 One Dollar Bills, sold exactly for the same price at Sotheby's in 2009: $ 43.7 million including premium.
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 is for sale by Christie's on November 14 in New York. The logics would be that it is acknowledged as one of the key works of Warhol, in excess of $ 35M. The auction house has not published an estimate. Here is the link to the catalog.
I invite you to play the video featured by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This surprising artwork provides a final denial to whoever thinks that the art, personality and ambition of Warhol are simple to decode. This Statue of Liberty is one of the masterpieces of the first great year of the artist, as well as the 200 One Dollar Bills, sold exactly for the same price at Sotheby's in 2009: $ 43.7 million including premium.
1962 Soup and Coke
2010 SOLD 35.3 M$ including premium
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, nothing to embellish. The models differ only by their labels.
The artist turns advertising into derision. He painted the same year a Campbell can torn to be destroyed. This remarkable indicator of the artistic intention of Warhol has been sold for $ 11.7 million including premium at Christie's on May 9, 2006, despite its small size, 51 x 41 cm.
The Coca-Cola bottles did not have the anti-advertising purity of the soup cans: the logo of the brand lies next to the object. But it is the rarest of the four founding icons of Warhol's art.
The largest painting done on this subject at this time, 207 x 144 cm, is estimated $ 20M by Sotheby's, for sale in New York on November 9. It is illustrated in the article shared by The New York Times.
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 $ 2.8 million including premium by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007.
POST SALE COMMENT
The importance of this Warhol painting had been correctly identified. The result, $ 35.3 million including premium, is in line with what one could expect.
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, nothing to embellish. The models differ only by their labels.
The artist turns advertising into derision. He painted the same year a Campbell can torn to be destroyed. This remarkable indicator of the artistic intention of Warhol has been sold for $ 11.7 million including premium at Christie's on May 9, 2006, despite its small size, 51 x 41 cm.
The Coca-Cola bottles did not have the anti-advertising purity of the soup cans: the logo of the brand lies next to the object. But it is the rarest of the four founding icons of Warhol's art.
The largest painting done on this subject at this time, 207 x 144 cm, is estimated $ 20M by Sotheby's, for sale in New York on November 9. It is illustrated in the article shared by The New York Times.
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 $ 2.8 million including premium by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007.
POST SALE COMMENT
The importance of this Warhol painting had been correctly identified. The result, $ 35.3 million including premium, is in line with what one could expect.
1962 Multitude of the Dollars
2015 SOLD for £ 21M including premium
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 in London, Sotheby's offers 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 is estimated £ 13M, lot 24.
From March 1962 Warhol imagines the multiplication of identical images by using silk screening. The US banknote is a suitable candidate for the first works in the new technique. The monumental 200 One Dollar Bills, 203 x 234 cm, showing 200 front sides in twenty lines of ten notes each, was sold for $ 43.7M including premium by Sotheby's on 11 November 2009.
Coming back to the next sale.
The back of the 2 dollar bill is also the subject of one of the works of 1962 and the excuse for a trial of green silkscreen ink. This painting 211 x 48 cm showing twenty lines of two notes each is estimated £ 5M, lot 27.
Lot 26, estimated £ 12M, is a diptych dated 1962 and 1963 consisting of elements of same size and design as in lot 27. It is dedicated to the one dollar bill of which one of the elements of the diptych displays the front side and the other the back.
2015 RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
One dollar bill (silver certificate) : £ 21M.
Front and back dollar bills : unsold
Two dollar bills (back) unsold
LATER COMMENT
The Two dollar bills (back) was sold for $ 3M including premium by Sotheby's in New York on May 16, 2018, lot 49 here linked on Artvalue.
On July 1 in London, Sotheby's offers 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 is estimated £ 13M, lot 24.
From March 1962 Warhol imagines the multiplication of identical images by using silk screening. The US banknote is a suitable candidate for the first works in the new technique. The monumental 200 One Dollar Bills, 203 x 234 cm, showing 200 front sides in twenty lines of ten notes each, was sold for $ 43.7M including premium by Sotheby's on 11 November 2009.
Coming back to the next sale.
The back of the 2 dollar bill is also the subject of one of the works of 1962 and the excuse for a trial of green silkscreen ink. This painting 211 x 48 cm showing twenty lines of two notes each is estimated £ 5M, lot 27.
Lot 26, estimated £ 12M, is a diptych dated 1962 and 1963 consisting of elements of same size and design as in lot 27. It is dedicated to the one dollar bill of which one of the elements of the diptych displays the front side and the other the back.
2015 RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
One dollar bill (silver certificate) : £ 21M.
Front and back dollar bills : unsold
Two dollar bills (back) unsold
LATER COMMENT
The Two dollar bills (back) was sold for $ 3M including premium by Sotheby's in New York on May 16, 2018, lot 49 here linked on Artvalue.
1962 The Passion Campbell's
2017 SOLD for $ 27.5M including premium
In 1961 a still unknown Andy Warhol desired to be represented by Leo Castelli but the assistant of the boss was not convinced. Andy accepted the suggestion from a friend to execute a series of paintings featuring the Campbell's soup because it is an artefact that everybody sees everyday.
That first series will ultimately include eleven paintings in casein on linen prepared over a line drawing in graphite. The success encouraged Andy to prepare other popular themes and change to his faster technique using the silkscreen.
Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable) was sold for $ 24M including premium by Christie's in New York on November 10, 2010, lot 8. It comes back on May 17 in the same auction room, lot 58 B.
I discussed it as follows before the 2010 sale :
The Campbell's soup can, as seen by the user, plays a drama in three acts. First, it is a perfect cylinder adorned with an austere label defining its brand and its flavor selected among 32 varieties. At the end of the operation, it is a shapeless object emptied of its precious liquid, ready to be thrown without mercy into the garbage.
The intermediate act is the opening of the box. Warhol shows a can of vegetable soup with the can opener in place, ready to attack. Made in early 1962, this large size painting 183 x 132 cm is one of the most important in his prolific series of Campbell's soups.
Warhol is at that time one of the artists who want to express the real world, the real life, in the circle of Leo Castelli. Such an artwork confirms that he has already abandoned a previous intention to imitate advertising.
The first visitors to his exhibitions were amused to see a new naive. This view has proven wrong. The daily act of opening the can of soup has a complex meaning in its contradiction : it is both brutal, since it violates the integrity of the box, and ordinary and essential, because it is useless if the user cannot access the soup.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's before the 2017 sale.
That first series will ultimately include eleven paintings in casein on linen prepared over a line drawing in graphite. The success encouraged Andy to prepare other popular themes and change to his faster technique using the silkscreen.
Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable) was sold for $ 24M including premium by Christie's in New York on November 10, 2010, lot 8. It comes back on May 17 in the same auction room, lot 58 B.
I discussed it as follows before the 2010 sale :
The Campbell's soup can, as seen by the user, plays a drama in three acts. First, it is a perfect cylinder adorned with an austere label defining its brand and its flavor selected among 32 varieties. At the end of the operation, it is a shapeless object emptied of its precious liquid, ready to be thrown without mercy into the garbage.
The intermediate act is the opening of the box. Warhol shows a can of vegetable soup with the can opener in place, ready to attack. Made in early 1962, this large size painting 183 x 132 cm is one of the most important in his prolific series of Campbell's soups.
Warhol is at that time one of the artists who want to express the real world, the real life, in the circle of Leo Castelli. Such an artwork confirms that he has already abandoned a previous intention to imitate advertising.
The first visitors to his exhibitions were amused to see a new naive. This view has proven wrong. The daily act of opening the can of soup has a complex meaning in its contradiction : it is both brutal, since it violates the integrity of the box, and ordinary and essential, because it is useless if the user cannot access the soup.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's before the 2017 sale.
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 :
1964 The Terrible Twentieth Century
2014 SOLD 63 M$ including premium
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, is for sale on May 13 at Christie's in New York. The estimate of $ 50M was released by Christie's in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's to introduce this lot.
POST SALE COMMENT
The quad of Race Riot is a major piece by Warhol, sold for $ 63M including premium.
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, is for sale on May 13 at Christie's in New York. The estimate of $ 50M was released by Christie's in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's to introduce this lot.
POST SALE COMMENT
The quad of Race Riot is a major piece by Warhol, sold for $ 63M including premium.
1964 The Gang of Thirteen
2018 SOLD for $ 28.4M including premium
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. On May 17 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 15 B a diptych of the Most Wanted Men No. 11, John Joseph H., Jr.
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?
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
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. On May 17 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 15 B a diptych of the Most Wanted Men No. 11, John Joseph H., Jr.
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?
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
1967-1968 The Ghostly Chair
2014 SOLD for $ 20.4M including premium by Sotheby's
2019 SOLD for $ 19M including premium
PRE 2019 SALE DISCUSSION
Andy Warhol becomes famous in 1962 with his multiple paintings of Marilyn Monroe, started just after the death of the actress from a single image transferred to silkscreen. Geldzahler suggests that the artist treats the theme of death more explicitly. His macabre series is identified as Death and Disaster.
Paradoxically the most shocking image does not display death but only its instrument. In 1964 Warhol prepares a screen from a photo of the Sing Sing electric chair, in the middle of its big empty room, without any human presence. He makes 32 monochrome paintings 56 x 71 cm, each one in another color, conceived to be exhibited together. The chilling blue version was sold for $ 11.6M including premium by Christie's on November 10, 2015.
In 1967 Warhol prepares for the next year a new exhibition that will focus on the two extreme themes, life and death, symbolized by the flowers and by the electric chair. He executes in 1967 and 1968 14 large paintings 137 x 188 cm of the electric chair based on an enlargement of the central part of the original image.
Most of these paintings are monochrome. One of them is an exception. The background consists of three oblique stripes that symbolize life : blue of the sky, green of the grass, pink of the flesh. The chair is printed twice, in army green and dark purple, more threatening by their very low contrast with the background.
This Big Electric Chair was sold for $ 20.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2014. It is estimated $ 18M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 20 B.
All the Warhol chairs were painted after the decommissioning of the Sing Sing instrument, decided in 1963. Indeed other similar chairs continued to function in the world, but it will never be clear whether Warhol had an activivist intent behind this morbid theme. In June 1968 the assassination attempt on Warhol by Valerie Solanas is a real encounter between the artist and death.
Andy Warhol becomes famous in 1962 with his multiple paintings of Marilyn Monroe, started just after the death of the actress from a single image transferred to silkscreen. Geldzahler suggests that the artist treats the theme of death more explicitly. His macabre series is identified as Death and Disaster.
Paradoxically the most shocking image does not display death but only its instrument. In 1964 Warhol prepares a screen from a photo of the Sing Sing electric chair, in the middle of its big empty room, without any human presence. He makes 32 monochrome paintings 56 x 71 cm, each one in another color, conceived to be exhibited together. The chilling blue version was sold for $ 11.6M including premium by Christie's on November 10, 2015.
In 1967 Warhol prepares for the next year a new exhibition that will focus on the two extreme themes, life and death, symbolized by the flowers and by the electric chair. He executes in 1967 and 1968 14 large paintings 137 x 188 cm of the electric chair based on an enlargement of the central part of the original image.
Most of these paintings are monochrome. One of them is an exception. The background consists of three oblique stripes that symbolize life : blue of the sky, green of the grass, pink of the flesh. The chair is printed twice, in army green and dark purple, more threatening by their very low contrast with the background.
This Big Electric Chair was sold for $ 20.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2014. It is estimated $ 18M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 20 B.
All the Warhol chairs were painted after the decommissioning of the Sing Sing instrument, decided in 1963. Indeed other similar chairs continued to function in the world, but it will never be clear whether Warhol had an activivist intent behind this morbid theme. In June 1968 the assassination attempt on Warhol by Valerie Solanas is a real encounter between the artist and death.
