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Auction archive: Lot number 13

Andy Warhol

Estimate
US$1,200,000 - US$1,800,000
Price realised:
US$1,445,000
Auction archive: Lot number 13

Andy Warhol

Estimate
US$1,200,000 - US$1,800,000
Price realised:
US$1,445,000
Beschreibung:

13 PROPERTY OF A NEW YORK COLLECTOR Andy Warhol Dance Steps 1962 pencil on paper 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm.) Signed and dated "ANDY WARHOL / 62" on the reverse
Provenance Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich Kasper König, Germany Private Collection, 1979 Christie's, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, June 22, 2006, lot 15 Private Collection Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art Evening Sale, November 14, 2007, lot 45 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Exhibited New York, Gagosian Gallery, Andy Warhol Early Hand-Painted Works, September 22 – October 22, 2005 Literature Andy Warhol Early Hand-Painted Works, exh. cat., Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2005, n.p. Catalogue Essay “I never wanted to be a painter; I wanted to be a tap dancer.” - Andy Warhol One of only two known fully-finished works on paper from the rare Diagram Paintings series, Andy Warhol’s Dance Steps, 1962, is a unique and extraordinarily fine example of Warhol’s draftsmanship. An early commentary on a society increasingly preoccupied with self-perception and fame, Dance Steps performs the role of social guide both materially and metaphorically, serving not only as choreographic demonstration, but also as a diagram for the viewer’s hopeful entrée into society. Experimenting with the concept of beauty, Warhol captured in these early works a sense of vulnerability, playing upon a nation’s newfound awareness of the concept of self-improvement. In his Wigs and Make him want you advertisements, both 1961, the artist anticipated his later promulgation of the commerciality that characterized the post-war era, reframing a visual identity that encouraged cultural uniformity. Warhol’s Dance Diagrams, though, are a marked departure from his other “beauty” paintings and drawings, explicitly illustrating the “how-to” of personal development, rather than the cosmetic and commercial fruits of self-enrichment. Appropriated from images found in two books published by the Dance Guild in the 1950s, Lindy Made Easy (with Charleston) and Fox Trot Made Easy, Warhol would carefully remove the pages of these books, attaching them to makeshift supports, and then project these readymade instructions onto his canvas to trace each figure. For Warhol, each step, numbered and clearly marked “R” or “L”, represented a step closer to the ideal. In Dance Steps, however, the artist strays from his own modular process, skillfully rendering a freehand drawing of this diagram, renouncing the mechanical painting process that would become axiomatic of the work in his most prolific period. An initially shy, self-conscious artist, Warhol provided his audience, and himself, a manual to the social instruments that could transform not only the person, but his entire life. Read More Artist Bio Andy Warhol American • 1928 - 1987 A seminal figure in the Pop Art movement of the early 1960s, Andy Warhol's paintings and screenprints are iconic beyond the scope of Art History, having become universal signifiers of an age. An early career in commercial illustration led to Warhol's appropriation of imagery from American popular culture and insistent concern with the superficial wonder of permanent commodification that yielded a synthesis of word and image, of art and the everyday. Warhol's obsession with creating slick, seemingly mass-produced artworks led him towards the commercial technique of screenprinting, which allowed him to produce large editions of his painted subjects. The clean, mechanical surface and perfect registration of the screenprinting process afforded Warhol a revolutionary absence of authorship that was crucial to the Pop Art manifesto. View More Works

Auction archive: Lot number 13
Auction:
Datum:
11 Nov 2013
Auction house:
Phillips
New York
Beschreibung:

13 PROPERTY OF A NEW YORK COLLECTOR Andy Warhol Dance Steps 1962 pencil on paper 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm.) Signed and dated "ANDY WARHOL / 62" on the reverse
Provenance Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich Kasper König, Germany Private Collection, 1979 Christie's, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, June 22, 2006, lot 15 Private Collection Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art Evening Sale, November 14, 2007, lot 45 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Exhibited New York, Gagosian Gallery, Andy Warhol Early Hand-Painted Works, September 22 – October 22, 2005 Literature Andy Warhol Early Hand-Painted Works, exh. cat., Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2005, n.p. Catalogue Essay “I never wanted to be a painter; I wanted to be a tap dancer.” - Andy Warhol One of only two known fully-finished works on paper from the rare Diagram Paintings series, Andy Warhol’s Dance Steps, 1962, is a unique and extraordinarily fine example of Warhol’s draftsmanship. An early commentary on a society increasingly preoccupied with self-perception and fame, Dance Steps performs the role of social guide both materially and metaphorically, serving not only as choreographic demonstration, but also as a diagram for the viewer’s hopeful entrée into society. Experimenting with the concept of beauty, Warhol captured in these early works a sense of vulnerability, playing upon a nation’s newfound awareness of the concept of self-improvement. In his Wigs and Make him want you advertisements, both 1961, the artist anticipated his later promulgation of the commerciality that characterized the post-war era, reframing a visual identity that encouraged cultural uniformity. Warhol’s Dance Diagrams, though, are a marked departure from his other “beauty” paintings and drawings, explicitly illustrating the “how-to” of personal development, rather than the cosmetic and commercial fruits of self-enrichment. Appropriated from images found in two books published by the Dance Guild in the 1950s, Lindy Made Easy (with Charleston) and Fox Trot Made Easy, Warhol would carefully remove the pages of these books, attaching them to makeshift supports, and then project these readymade instructions onto his canvas to trace each figure. For Warhol, each step, numbered and clearly marked “R” or “L”, represented a step closer to the ideal. In Dance Steps, however, the artist strays from his own modular process, skillfully rendering a freehand drawing of this diagram, renouncing the mechanical painting process that would become axiomatic of the work in his most prolific period. An initially shy, self-conscious artist, Warhol provided his audience, and himself, a manual to the social instruments that could transform not only the person, but his entire life. Read More Artist Bio Andy Warhol American • 1928 - 1987 A seminal figure in the Pop Art movement of the early 1960s, Andy Warhol's paintings and screenprints are iconic beyond the scope of Art History, having become universal signifiers of an age. An early career in commercial illustration led to Warhol's appropriation of imagery from American popular culture and insistent concern with the superficial wonder of permanent commodification that yielded a synthesis of word and image, of art and the everyday. Warhol's obsession with creating slick, seemingly mass-produced artworks led him towards the commercial technique of screenprinting, which allowed him to produce large editions of his painted subjects. The clean, mechanical surface and perfect registration of the screenprinting process afforded Warhol a revolutionary absence of authorship that was crucial to the Pop Art manifesto. View More Works

Auction archive: Lot number 13
Auction:
Datum:
11 Nov 2013
Auction house:
Phillips
New York
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