Provenance
Stellan Holm Gallery, New York
Private Collection
Phillips, London, 29 June 2015, lot 33
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Catalogue Essay
‘... as I was putting the phone down, I heard a loud exploding noise and whirled around: I saw Valerie pointing a gun at me and I realized she'd just fired it. I said "No! No, Valerie! Don't do it!" and she shot at me again. I dropped down to the floor as if I'd been hit I didn't know if I actually was or not. I tried to crawl under the desk. She moved in closer, fired again, and then I felt horrible, horrible pain, like a cherry bomb exploding inside me’ (Andy Warhol, quoted in Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett, POPism: The Warhol Sixties, Orlando, 1980, p. 343)

In 1968 an attempt was made on Andy Warhol’s life by Factory outlier, Valerie Solanas who shot and severely wounded him. A turning point in his artistic sensibility, the present work, painted 13 years after the shooting, not only offers a deeply personal exploration into Warhol’s encroaching sense of mortality, but also exhibits his all-consuming obsession with the events that both psychologically and physically scarred him. In Gun (Cowboy six shooter), the artist presents the viewer with a silkscreened silhouette of the same model of pistol that so nearly claimed his life.

Starkly brandished against a cool, monochromatic background, the slick outline of a pistol dominates the expanse of canvas. Rather than saturating his object with the bold, tonal colours typical of some of his other works such as the Marilyn Monroe portraits, the harsh, cold edges of the gun are revealed, glinting sinisterly at the viewer. Seemingly devoid of emotion, the inherent phallocratic nature of the gun is suggestive of an overt declaration of power, ownership and authority – a visual symbol that naturally begets violence and machoism.

There is a paradoxical air to the work; the seemingly shiny glint of the gun could almost be suggestive of a desirable commodity – a status symbol in a glossy advertisement. Yet Warhol’s unremitting preoccupation with the loaded reputation of the gun reveals something of the artist’s own anxiety and fear in facing death. Refusing to let go of the image of the weapon, Warhol became consumed by its violent and macabre underside. This obsession continued to dominate his artistic output, as seen in his Death and Disaster series and Knives paintings. Within these paintings the dread appears to mount in the spectacular images of American violence and death that Warhol continued to produce in his iconic silkscreens.

Desperate to capture the essence of violence, various models of firearms were used in Warhol’s Guns paintings. ‘In order to choose which guns he would use, we made calls to friends who might know someone with a gun. A few scary people, with first names only, came by and let Andy take Polaroid’s of their weapons. I remember him photographing a sawn-off shotgun.’ (Vincent Fremont, Cast a Cold Eye: The Late Work of Andy Warhol, New York, 2006, p. 157). However, the present work showcases the very model of gun used by Solanas, a .22 snub-nosed pistol. Here, unusually for Warhol, the image becomes immensely personal. In place of the infamous motifs which dominate his earlier works, the appearance of the very gun used in the attempt on his life reveals Warhol’s own heightened vulnerability. In fact, the accessibility of such a gun comments on the shooting itself and the ease with which imagery is shared in contemporary culture. A feminist writer, as well as an aspiring celebrity, Solanas hovered on the fringes of Warhol's Factory crowd, even appearing in one of his films. Her lasting effect on the artist’s psyche and her role in his preoccupation with violence and American gun crime, invites deep introspection, whereby the viewer might contemplate the threat to their own finite existence.

An iconic image in its own right, Warhol’s Gun (Cowboy six shooter) is poignant as it is contemplative, retaining the unthinkable gravitas of the traumatic event of 1968. Simultaneously a status symbol and a warning, Warhol’s gun painting is depicted with such clarity that it pushes past realism into a territory of anxiety and fear which is inextricably intermingled with Warhol’s unadulterated fascination with his own near death experience.
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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22

Andy Warhol

Gun (Cowboy six shooter)

stamped twice by The Estate of Andy Warhol and The Andy Warhol Foundation on the overlap
silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer on canvas
40.6 x 50.8 cm (15 7/8 x 20 in.)
Executed in 1981.

Estimate
£200,000 - 300,000 ‡

Sold for £273,000

Contact Specialist
Henry Highley
Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
+ 44 20 7318 4061 hhighley@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London Auction 6 October 2017

1
Wolfgang Tillmans
Einzelgänger VIII
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ♠
Sold for £435,000
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2
Günther Förg
Untitled
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
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3
Oscar Murillo
Just Dreams
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ♠
Sold for £187,500
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4
Ed Ruscha
Devil
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000
Sold for £273,000
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5
Albert Oehlen
Untitled
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £729,000
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6
Hurvin Anderson
Peter's Series: Back
Estimate £600,000 - 900,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,809,000
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7
Cecily Brown
Park
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £849,000
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8
Adrian Ghenie
The Collector 4
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,049,000
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9
Albert Oehlen
La Playa Nueva
Estimate £700,000 - 900,000 ‡♠
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10
Sigmar Polke
Tänzerin
Estimate £2,500,000 - 3,500,000 ♠
Sold for £3,369,000
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11
Ilya Kabakov and Emilia Kabakov
Flying 12
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡
Sold for £212,500
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12
Sigmar Polke
Untitled
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £489,000
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13
Richard Prince
Untitled (Portrait)
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡
Sold for £561,000
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14
Richard Prince
Untitled (Cartoon)
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000
Sold for £125,000
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15
Agostino Bonalumi
Bianco e Nero
Estimate £180,000 - 250,000 ♠
Sold for £225,000
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16
Enrico Castellani
Superficie bianca
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £200,000
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17
Paolo Scheggi
Eclisse
Estimate £300,000 - 400,000 ♠
Sold for £525,000
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18
Josef Albers
Study for Homage for the Square; Sel: E. B. 4
Estimate £300,000 - 400,000
Sold for £345,000
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19
Walter Leblanc
Twisted Strings
Estimate £180,000 - 220,000 ‡♠
Sold for £187,500
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20
Ai Weiwei
Map of China
Estimate £800,000 - 1,200,000 ‡
Sold for £789,000
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21
Andy Warhol
Knives
Estimate £2,000,000 - 3,000,000 ‡
Sold for £2,649,000
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22
Andy Warhol
Gun (Cowboy six shooter)
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £273,000
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23
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate £600,000 - 900,000 ‡
Sold for £1,569,000
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24
Andreas Gursky
Los Angeles
Estimate £1,400,000 - 1,800,000 ♠
Sold for £1,689,000
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25
Damien Hirst
Cyclohexane
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £729,000
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26
Sarah Lucas
Supersensible
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡♠
Sold for £237,000
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27
Damien Hirst
Sad Steps - Life Fulfilled
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £729,000
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28
Glenn Ligon
Stranger Study #11
Estimate £300,000 - 400,000 ‡
Sold for £345,000
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29
David Hammons
Moving to the Other Side
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
Sold for £175,000
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30
Ai Weiwei
Coca-Cola
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £297,000
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31
Ai Jing
I Love Color #11
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £87,500
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32
Gerhard Richter
Grau
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡♠
Sold for £405,000
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33
A.R. Penck
Ali Alpha Tor
Estimate £350,000 - 450,000 ‡♠
Sold for £369,000
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34
Georg Baselitz
Dreimal
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ♠
Sold for £261,000
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35
Anselm Kiefer
Voyage au Bout de la Nuit
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £489,000
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36
Manolo Valdés
Retrato de Dorothy III
Estimate £140,000 - 180,000 ‡♠
Sold for £261,000
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20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London Auction 6 October 2017

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Andy Warhol

22

Andy Warhol

Gun (Cowboy six shooter)

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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