Andy Warhol - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, November 15, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Collection Todd Brassner, New York; Joseph K. Levene Fine Arts, New York; Collection James and Susan Phillips

  • Literature

    G. Frei, N. Printz, and S. King-Nero, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne, Paintings and Sculpture 1964-1969, New York, 2004, cat. no. 1956, pp. 304 (illustrated) and 312

  • Catalogue Essay

    From his early 1960s’ colourful portraits of Marilyn Monroe and blue paintings of Jacqueline Kennedy, to the 1970s’ portraits of rock-star Mick Jagger and followers of Studio 54 to fellow artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Warhol never forgot to represent himself in art as well. Frontal, profile or in a deliberate pose, Warhol’s visage has become his most famous attribute, elevating him from commercial artist to Pop Artist on a worldwide scale, earning him the reputation as one of the most prolific and well-known artists of his time. The present lot, a Self-Portrait from 1967, perfectly embodies the major tenets in Warhol’s distinguished career. Andy Warhol began painting portraits on commission in the early 1960s, and this soon developed into a significant aspect of his career, largely through the assistance of Fred Hughes. Many of his subjects were well known in international social circles, the art world and the entertainment industry—realms which had fascinated Warhol since his youth and which had now embraced him as one of their own. Indeed, the celebrity of Warhol is one that brings works such as the present lot into importance, as the portrait of the artist himself is equal, if not more important, in characterizing his mastery in depicting famous personalities and conveys a period in his career in which technique and expression were of the utmost concern. His own image has become one of discussion and analysis, often begging the question if all self-portraits are inevitably staged and executed accordingly. Coinciding with the photo-booth type headshots Warhol was working with at the time, the present lot differs from his earlier overconfident, front-posing self portraits, infusing Warhol’s depiction with a unique and somewhat innocent appearance. Moving away from his proud Self-Portrait of 1964 and his pensive gaze of 1966/67, the present lot, although executed in the same year as the previous series, displays an aura of nonchalance and placid composure, perhaps even the most natural out of the many self-portraits executed during his life. With his head slightly turned to the side and his eyes directed away from the lens of the camera, Warhol has recorded himself uncalculated, capturing the essence of a snapshot, and an artist in his prime.

  • 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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47

Self Portrait

1967
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas.
8 x 8 in. (20.3 x 20.3 cm).
Signed and dated “1967 Andy Warhol” on the overlap; stamped with the Authentication Board seal and numbered “A114.971” on the overlap.

Estimate
$500,000 - 700,000 

Sold for $601,000

Contemporary Art Part I

15 Nov 2007, 7pm
New York