Andy Warhol - Contemporary Art Day Sale New York Friday, November 16, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Acquired directly from the artist
    Collection of David Whitney
    Private collection, California

  • Catalogue Essay

    Went to Castellano’s for dinner (cab $6) with David Whitney, but without Philip who was off having dinner with some swells. And David still reminds me that he wants us to get married, and now that I hear how many Jasper Johnses he has, it would be really worth it.
    ANDY WARHOL

    (Andy Warhol, from Andy Warhol Diaries, January 12, 1987, p. 791).

    The present lot, inscribed “To David Whitney 1978” captures a slice of not only the glimmering world of Studio 54 in the late 1970s, but also a personal relationship vital to both artist and friend. David Whitney was an American art curator, gallerist and critic, anda close friend of Andy Warhol. Studio 54 Complimentary Drink Invitation, 1978, a unique screenprint on paper, reveals four screens of the studio tickets offering complimentary drinks to the holder who revealed them at the door of the most famous nightclub. The repeated screens offer access to a world brimming with the pleasure and profusion that defned the decade from which these stubs were stolen. The present lot was inscribed just days before Andy Warhol admitted he should have married the magnanimous curator and gallerist.

  • 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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216

Studio 54 Complimentary Drink Invitation

1978
screenprint on paper
38 1/8 x 25 in. (96.8 x 63.5 cm)
Signed, inscribed, and dated “1/10 to David Whitney Andy Warhol 1978” lower margin; further, stamped by the Andy Warhol Authentication Board and numbered A160.122 on the reverse.

Estimate
$50,000 - 70,000 

Sold for $152,500

Contemporary Art Day Sale

16 November 2012
New York