Known as an artist of the fabulous and the famous, Warhol created a vast oeuvre of prints unified by his use of repetition and exploitation of the multiple. Warhol came to screenprinting in the early 1960’s, interested by the photomechanical processes of the medium. “I’m for mechanical art," said Warhol. "When I took up silk screening, it was to more fully exploit the preconceived image through the commercial techniques of multiple reproduction.”
In many ways Pop Art was the language of prints and multiples. It was a language of movie stills, consumer goods, cartoons, and closeups. Warhol made prints out of this very context, from his vibrant and lyrical Flowers (lot 60), sourced from a photograph of hibiscus blooms, to his Soup Cans (lot 66), and images of Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe (lots 59 and 68). All would come to proliferate society, to be consumed by the masses.
Warhol’s Electric Chair series (lot 67), are from an extensive Death and Disaster series in which Warhol investigated his theory of seriality and the multiple. “When you see a gruesome picture over and over again,” Warhol said, “it doesn’t really have any effect.” One of Warhol’s last series, Cowboys and Indians, lot 70, features popular western icons from Annie Oakley to John Wayne, as well as important Native American figures; a frowning Geronimo (lot 71). This series, while playful, was as Warhol wanted for “grown-ups” a Warholian take on a beloved West, and all its twentieth-century allure.
In 1964, Elizabeth Taylor was the perfect interplay of glamour and tragedy. At the height of her career and hospitalized for pneumonia, Warhol created this portrait from a blown-up publicity still of the actress. “I started those [pictures of Elizabeth Taylor] a long time ago, when she was so sick and everyone said she was going to die,” said Warhol. “Now I’m doing them all over, putting bright colors on her lips and eyes.”
“Ohhhh, Elizabeth Taylor, ohhhh. She’s so glamorous.” - Andy Warhol Interviewed by John Giorno, 1963