Provenance
Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris
Private Collection, New York
Private Collection, London
Private Collection, Europe
Exhibited
Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Andy Warhol 1928-1987, 8 October - 20 November 1994
Lausanne, Fondation de l’Hermitage, Andy Warhol: the José Mugrabi Collection, 25May - 1 October 1995; then travelled to Milan, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta (22
October 1995 - 11 February 1996), Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Wilhelm-Hack Museum (15September 1996 - 12 January 1997), Kunsthalle Helsinki (23 August - 16 November 1997), Warsaw, The National Museum (6 March - 3 May 1998), Krakow, The National Museum(19 May - 12 July 1998), Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (12 October - 12December 1999), Kochi, The Museum of Art (6 February - 26 March 2000), Umeda,Daimaru Museum (24 May - 11 June 2000), Hiroshima City Museum of ContemporaryArt (17 June - 30 July 2000), Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art (5 August - 1 October2000), Nagoya City Art Museum (7 October - 17 December 2000), Niigata City ArtMuseum (4 January - 12 February 2001)
Zurich, Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Andy Warhol Skulls, 7 June - 7 July 2006
Catalogue Essay
‘I’m not afraid to die; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.’ ANDY WARHOL

Andy Warhol was shot and critically injured on the 3rd of June 1968 by Valerie Solanas, a marginal figure in the factory scene and author of separatist feminist manifestos. After this terrifying incident, Andy Warhol became even more obsessed with the subject of death than in his previous work. A ten year period lapsed before the artist returned to self-portraiture, yet when he did, it was clear that his past experience had left a profound effect on the psychological subject of his oeuvre.

A significant motif in the artist’s later compositions, the representation of the skull in the present lot recalls his series of paintings of Skulls executed in the seventies – a time in which the resurgence of skull imagery accompanied a growing anxiety over the spread of AIDS, as well as the escalating threats of nuclear war and ecological disasters. Death is particularly paradigmatic of Warhol’s work: it is a theme which he drew upon frequently in his final years, and one which he chose to channel through the image of a skull. In this particular painting, the skull’s inclusion acts as a direct allusion to the memento mori tradition that pervades ancient literature, its ominous and foreboding presence patently reminding its observer of the transience of life, and the certainty of death. Indeed, just as Warhol was confronted with own existence as he stared into the face of his assailant, the viewer too is forced to enter a period of self-reflection, as we contemplate our inevitable fate. Reminiscent of his Self-Portrait with Skull, 1978, which was based on one of several striking photographs taken by the artist in the same decade, in which he poses with a skull on his shoulder or head, there is the implication of death as imminent. In the self-portrait, both Warhol and the skull, as the latter does in this piece, appear spectral: the artist’s face seems to disintegrate before the viewer’s eyes, his features slowly morphing into that which, in time, will come to resemble the vacant stare of the dead.

Skull is a work of powerful and tragic utterance. Replacing Warhol’s sixties paintings of Marilyns and Campbell soup cans, it evokes a sense of tragedy which is deeply commanding. Warhol once wrote that “During the 60’s, I think people forgot what emotions were supposed to be. And I don’t think they’ve ever remembered. I think that once you see emotions from a certain angle you can never think of them as real again. That’s what more or less has happened to me.” (A. Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), New York, 1975, p. 27); however, Warhol’s insecurity after facing death is extremely palpable in this painting, refuting the artist’s earlier statement, and presenting a darker, more vulnerable dimension to his work.
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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Ο13

Andy Warhol

Skull

1976
acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas
38.1 x 48.3 cm. (15 x 19 in.)

Estimate
£600,000 - 800,000 ‡

Sold for £698,500

Contact Specialist
Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art Department
psumner@phillips.com
+44 207 318 4063

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 27 June 2013 7pm

1
Rob Pruitt
Chinese Buffet
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡
Sold for £104,500
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2
Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 †
Sold for £230,500
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3
Tauba Auerbach
Untitled (Fold) XV
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £386,500
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4
Ugo Rondinone
No. 209 DREISSIGSTERJUNIZWEITAUSENDUNDNULL
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ‡
Sold for £86,500
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5
Ugo Rondinone
If There were Anywhere but Desert. Friday
Estimate £350,000 - 500,000 ‡
Sold for £410,500
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6
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #426
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
Sold for £242,500
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7
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled (Bolego)
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £782,500
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8
Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #36
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
Sold for £302,500
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9
Glenn Brown
Oscillate Wildly (after ‘Autumnal Cannibalism’ 1936 by Salvador Dalí)
Estimate £2,500,000 - 3,500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,882,500
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10
Andy Warhol
Pontiac
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,500,000 ‡
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11
Anish Kapoor
Untitled
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,142,500
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12
Andy Warhol
Diamond Dust Shoes
Estimate £900,000 - 1,200,000 ‡
Sold for £1,142,500
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13
Andy Warhol
Skull
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
Sold for £698,500
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14
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Three Pontificators
Estimate £2,500,000 - 4,500,000 ‡
Sold for £2,210,500
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15
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Three-Tiered Perspective)
Estimate £140,000 - 180,000 ‡
Sold for £170,500
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16
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000
Sold for £242,500
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17
Anish Kapoor
Turning the World Upside Down II
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ♠
Sold for £206,500
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18
Antony Gormley
SICK
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ♠
Sold for £194,500
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19
This lot is no longer available.
20
Andy Warhol
Electric Chairs
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
Sold for £122,500
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21
George Condo
Smiling Smoker
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000
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22
Marcel Broodthaers
Abbildung
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ♠
Sold for £218,500
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23
Oscar Murillo
Untitled
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ♠†
Sold for £146,500
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24
Sterling Ruby
Alabaster SR10-7
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
Sold for £110,500
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25
Jacob Kassay
Untitled
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ‡
Sold for £104,500
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26
Rashid Johnson
Cosmic Slop
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
Sold for £86,500
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27
Marc Quinn
Separation of Body and Soul (Ultramarine)
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £104,500
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 27 June 2013 7pm

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Andy Warhol

Ο13

Andy Warhol

Skull

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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