Andy Warhol - Contemporary Art Evening London Thursday, February 11, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Jablonka, Cologne; Private collection, Switzerland

  • Exhibited

    Cologne, Galerie Jablonka, Andy Warhol: Knives, 1998

  • Literature

    Exhibition catalogue, Galerie Jablonka, Andy Warhol: Knives, Cologne, 1998, p. 57 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    “The Guns and Knives paintings from 1981–1982 are stark reminders of the violent society we lived in then and now. At the beginning Andy wanted to photograph exotic knives and daggers. We knew that Chris Stein from Blondie collected handmade knives and unusual daggers. Chris brought some to the studio for Andy to photograph. But after reviewing the pictures, Andy asked Jay Shriver, his new art assistant, to buy some ordinary kitchen knives from a Bowery restaurant supply store. Jay came back with some Galaxy 8-inch slicers and, of course, a receipt. Andy photographed the ordinary knives in various formations and they were chosen. How many times does one read about someone picking up a kitchen knife and plunging it into his wife or her husband in a moment of jealous rage?”
     
    (Vincent Fremont, quoted in exhibition catalogue, Cast a Cold Eye: The Late Work of Andy Warhol, Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2006, p. 157)

  • Artist Biography

    Andy Warhol

    American • 1928 - 1987

    Andy Warhol was the leading exponent of the Pop Art movement in the U.S. in the 1960s. Following an early career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol achieved fame with his revolutionary series of silkscreened prints and paintings of familiar objects, such as Campbell's soup tins, and celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe. Obsessed with popular culture, celebrity and advertising, Warhol created his slick, seemingly mass-produced images of everyday subject matter from his famed Factory studio in New York City. His use of mechanical methods of reproduction, notably the commercial technique of silk screening, wholly revolutionized art-making.

    Working as an artist, but also director and producer, Warhol produced a number of avant-garde films in addition to managing the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founding Interview magazine. A central figure in the New York art scene until his untimely death in 1987, Warhol was notably also a mentor to such artists as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

     

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13

Knives

1981-82
Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen inks on canvas.
50 x 40 cm. (20 x 16 in.)

Stamped with the Estate of Andy Warhol and numbered 'PA 95.023' and with the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts seal on the overlap.

Estimate
£150,000 - 250,000 

Sold for £145,250

Contemporary Art Evening

12 Feb 2010
London