Andy Warhol - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Monday, June 28, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Artmosphere, Vienna

  • Catalogue Essay

    Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys were both giants of 20th-century art. Warhol’s dark glasses and wig, as well as Beuys’ hat and vest, have become readily recognizable, and symbolize these two artistic personae. Any portrait of such a well-known artist by an artist as famous as Warhol, such as the present lot, inevitably invites speculation as to the personal and artistic connections between them, and presents an intriguing insight into two of the most influential yet enigmatic characters in contemporary art.
    “We had breakfast with Joseph Beuys, he insisted I come to his house and see his studio and the way he lives and have tea and cake, it was really nice. He gave me a work of art which was two bottles of effervescent water which ended up exploding in my suitcase and damaging everything I have, so I can’t open the box now, because I don’t know if it’s a work of art anymore or just broken bottles. So if he comes to New York I’ve got to get him to come and sign the box because it’s just a real muck.” (Andy Warhol, quoted in Cast a Cold Eye: The Late Work of Andy Warhol, exh. cat., Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2006, p. 168)

  • 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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15

Portrait of Joseph Beuys

1980
Silkscreen ink on synthetic fabric.
129.7 x 79.5 cm (51 x 31 1/4 in).
Stamped by the Estate of Andy Warhol and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Art, Inc., and numbered 'UP69.22' on the overlap.

Estimate
£180,000 - 220,000 

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

29 June 2010
London