Andy Warhol - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale New York Tuesday, May 10, 2016 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    The Estate of Andy Warhol, New York
    The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York
    Private Collection, New York
    Sotheby's, New York, March 9, 2012, lot 77
    Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

  • Catalogue Essay

    Rendered in imposing black and white, Andy Warhol’s SOMEBODY WANTS TO BUY YOUR APARTMENT BUILDING! , circa 1985-86 is a compelling example from Warhol’s advertisement series. Culled from the visual advertisements, maps, signage and slogans of New York City, the present lot marks a return for Warhol to his early career as a commercial illustrator, made evident by his apt freehand drawing style rendered in simple black lines. SOMEBODY WANTS TO BUY YOUR APARTMENT BUILDING! is a sprawling slogan, executed in block, capital letters, terminating with an exclamation point that expresses the urgency and time pressured insistence of the real estate come-on. Warhol’s mock advertisements are highly sought after because of their boldly ironic use of the splashy and yet cliché-ridden language of consumerism. Implicitly, this category of his work also draws the equation between the commercial value of art and real estate. The present lot’s promotional catch line is further emphasized by his strategic off-register text, which brings to mind the generic and error prone script of a newspaper classified ad. SOMEBODY WANTS TO BUY YOUR APARTMENT BUILDING! demands an immediate response, urging the viewer to participate in the frantic transaction promised by the announcement—to buy the product, or, as seen in the present lot, to sell their apartment building that perpetually seems to be an object of desire.

  • 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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151

SOMEBODY WANTS TO BUY YOUR APARTMENT BUILDING!

circa 1985-86
acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas
16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
This is work is stamped twice by the Estate of Andy Warhol, twice by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York, initialed and numbered twice "VF PA10.079" along the overlap.

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for $161,000

Contact Specialist
John McCord
Head of Day Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1261

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

New York Auction 10 May 2016