21 PROPERTY OF A PROMINENT EAST COAST COLLECTION Andy Warhol Self-Portrait 1986 synthetic polymer and silkscreen ink on canvas 22 x 22 in. (56 x 56 cm) Stamped with the Estate of Andy Warhol and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and numbered “PO40.040” on the overlap and on the stretcher.
Provenance The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York Acquired from the above by the previous owner Catalogue Essay I would prefer to remain a mystery; I never like to give my background and, anyway, I make it all different every time I’m asked… I’m influenced by other painters, everyone is in art. All the American artists have influenced me. ANDY WARHOL (Gretchen Berg “Andy: My True Story”, Los Angeles Free Press, Los Angeles, March 17, 1967, p. 3) The present lot is from Warhol’s last series of Self-Portraits, executed only a few months before his unexpected death in 1987. The silhouetted portrait of the iconic Pop Master, set against a jet black background, evokes the presence of a modern day seer, making this self-portrait one of the most moving works of his six-decade career. Throughout, Warhol created thousands of silkscreens of the most beautiful women and men of the Twentieth Century, setting their iconic portraits against vivid backdrops, studying and memorizing their every feature with each canvas that was completed. It is not unknown that Warhol had a deep frustration with his own physical appearance and a life-long obsession with his public image. By the late 1980s, the decade in which the present lot was created, he had subjected his physical image to had a series of operations and treatments and transformed it from its earlier state. The most recognizable of his features, however, was his shock of peroxide hair, provided by his extensive collection of “fright wigs.” What is so remarkable about this Self-Portrait series is that Warhol displays himself with an extreme starkness and brutal honesty, taking a rare step against his life-long struggle with aging and beauty. Here, he reveals a new portrait; one in which he no longer hides behind enormous dark shades, inverted images, costumes, make up, or camouflage. Unlike previous self-portraits with the “Frightwigs”, the features of Warhol’s face appear in stark detail. The earlier silkscreens are clean images, showing a perfectly round face, smooth hair, and even-toned skin. Here, however, the artist’s disembodied head appears ghost-like, highlighting his cheekbones, dark eyes, and the wear of his age around his mouth. The face materializes from the darkness by which it is surrounded in an explosive shock of pink. The portrait confronts the viewer in its bold composition. The artist’s shock of peroxide hair creates a kind of halo, which seems to herald the artist’s own inevitable end, as if predicting the outcome of the next year. The spectre of death has been present throughout Warhol’s entire career; from his portraits of Marilyn Monroe in the wake of her tragic death, to Jackie, captured just moments before her husband’s assassination, Warhol has exposed the bleak reality of the world we live in and the eternal present of death in life. The London-based dealer Anthony d’Offay persuaded Warhol to consider a new series of Self-Portraits in the winter of 1985. “At Christmas,” d’Offay recalled, “we visited a collector friend of Lucio Amelio who had a powerful red portrait of Beuys by Andy Warhol hanging in his house. As I looked at the painting I realised two things: first that Warhol was without question the greatest portrait painter of the 20th Century, and secondly that it was many years since he had made an iconic self-portrait. A week later, I visited Warhol in New York and suggested to him an exhibition of new self-portraits. A month later he had a series of images to show me in all of which he was wearing the now famous ‘fright wig.’ One of the images had not only a demonic aspect but reminded me more of a death mask. I felt it was tempting fate to choose this image, so we settled instead on a self-portrait with a hypnotic intensity. We agreed on the number of paintings and that some would have camouflage. When I returned to New York some weeks later the paintings were complete. The only problem was that Warhol had painted the demonic ‘Hammer Ho
21 PROPERTY OF A PROMINENT EAST COAST COLLECTION Andy Warhol Self-Portrait 1986 synthetic polymer and silkscreen ink on canvas 22 x 22 in. (56 x 56 cm) Stamped with the Estate of Andy Warhol and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and numbered “PO40.040” on the overlap and on the stretcher.
Provenance The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York Acquired from the above by the previous owner Catalogue Essay I would prefer to remain a mystery; I never like to give my background and, anyway, I make it all different every time I’m asked… I’m influenced by other painters, everyone is in art. All the American artists have influenced me. ANDY WARHOL (Gretchen Berg “Andy: My True Story”, Los Angeles Free Press, Los Angeles, March 17, 1967, p. 3) The present lot is from Warhol’s last series of Self-Portraits, executed only a few months before his unexpected death in 1987. The silhouetted portrait of the iconic Pop Master, set against a jet black background, evokes the presence of a modern day seer, making this self-portrait one of the most moving works of his six-decade career. Throughout, Warhol created thousands of silkscreens of the most beautiful women and men of the Twentieth Century, setting their iconic portraits against vivid backdrops, studying and memorizing their every feature with each canvas that was completed. It is not unknown that Warhol had a deep frustration with his own physical appearance and a life-long obsession with his public image. By the late 1980s, the decade in which the present lot was created, he had subjected his physical image to had a series of operations and treatments and transformed it from its earlier state. The most recognizable of his features, however, was his shock of peroxide hair, provided by his extensive collection of “fright wigs.” What is so remarkable about this Self-Portrait series is that Warhol displays himself with an extreme starkness and brutal honesty, taking a rare step against his life-long struggle with aging and beauty. Here, he reveals a new portrait; one in which he no longer hides behind enormous dark shades, inverted images, costumes, make up, or camouflage. Unlike previous self-portraits with the “Frightwigs”, the features of Warhol’s face appear in stark detail. The earlier silkscreens are clean images, showing a perfectly round face, smooth hair, and even-toned skin. Here, however, the artist’s disembodied head appears ghost-like, highlighting his cheekbones, dark eyes, and the wear of his age around his mouth. The face materializes from the darkness by which it is surrounded in an explosive shock of pink. The portrait confronts the viewer in its bold composition. The artist’s shock of peroxide hair creates a kind of halo, which seems to herald the artist’s own inevitable end, as if predicting the outcome of the next year. The spectre of death has been present throughout Warhol’s entire career; from his portraits of Marilyn Monroe in the wake of her tragic death, to Jackie, captured just moments before her husband’s assassination, Warhol has exposed the bleak reality of the world we live in and the eternal present of death in life. The London-based dealer Anthony d’Offay persuaded Warhol to consider a new series of Self-Portraits in the winter of 1985. “At Christmas,” d’Offay recalled, “we visited a collector friend of Lucio Amelio who had a powerful red portrait of Beuys by Andy Warhol hanging in his house. As I looked at the painting I realised two things: first that Warhol was without question the greatest portrait painter of the 20th Century, and secondly that it was many years since he had made an iconic self-portrait. A week later, I visited Warhol in New York and suggested to him an exhibition of new self-portraits. A month later he had a series of images to show me in all of which he was wearing the now famous ‘fright wig.’ One of the images had not only a demonic aspect but reminded me more of a death mask. I felt it was tempting fate to choose this image, so we settled instead on a self-portrait with a hypnotic intensity. We agreed on the number of paintings and that some would have camouflage. When I returned to New York some weeks later the paintings were complete. The only problem was that Warhol had painted the demonic ‘Hammer Ho
Try LotSearch and its premium features for 7 days - without any costs!
Be notified automatically about new items in upcoming auctions.
Create an alert
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
