Provenance
Fred Hughes, New York; Heiner BAstian Fine Art, Berlin; Stellan Holm, New York; Private Collection, New York
Literature
Exhibition Catalogue, Gagosian Gallery, Cast a Cold Eye: The Late Work of Andy Warhol, New York, 2006, p.85 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
‘I never understood why when you died, you didn’t just vanish, and everything could just keep going the way it was only you just wouldn’t be there. I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment’.’ (Andy Warhol as cited in Andy Warhol: Giant Size, London, 2006, p.524)
Arguably the most well known and pertinent artist of the 20th century, Andy Warhol the man, the art and the legacy requires no introduction. The single greatest artistic innovator of the Post War era, his lasting influence on our contemporary culture is evident for all to see. Nearly three decades of work came to a premature end in 1987 when he died from post operation complications, robbing the artistic world of its talisman, of its undisputed figure head. Having meticulously planned his own funeral long before his passing, the fragility of life and the impendence and omnipotence of death, most particularly his own death, had always been at the forefront of his mind. Artistically, with the posthumous portraits of Marilyn Monroe, the representations of Jackie Kennedy the widow, and his Death and Disaster series, it can be said that death was Andy Warhol’s single most important theme throughout his artistic canon. The present lot, a small but tightly composed, vivid, thickly painted canvas from his acclaimed Skull series, poignantly captures the essence of a troubled soul attempting to come to terms with his inner demons. Executed in 1976, over a decade before his death, Skull presents the viewer with a middle aged Andy Warhol contemplating the transience of life.
In the present lot and the series as a whole Warhol tackles head on the motif of the skull within the long, meaningful Vanitas tradition in Western art. The first known representation of the skull is thought to have come from the Dutch painter Jacques de Gheyn the Elder with his 1603 work Vanitas Still Life, a painting which has been retained in the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum since 1974, just two years prior to Warhol’s execution of the present lot. For more than 4 centuries, nearly every master has weighed in on the issue from Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran, to the founder of modern art, Paul Cezanne, and finally to Warhol’s closest rival as the most significant and influential artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso. However, unlike the somber, contemplative representations of his esteemed predecessors, Warhol’s contribution, in typical, distinctive Warholian fashion, is executed in bright, day-glo colours. His memento mori is depicted close up in three quarter pose, isolated against a two tier background and casting a shadow, the shadow of death. The vivacious hues of acrylic paint, navy blue and hot pink in the present lot, satirically counterbalance the morbid subject matter. The dichotomy between the subject and the execution, the image of a skull and glamorous colours in which it is painted, is representative of Warhol’s schizophrenic personality, of his well documented desire for fame and celebrity, glitzy life in contrast to, as quoted above, his wish for a blank tombstone.
In 1975 Andy Warhol said about death, ‘I don’t believe in it, because you’re not around to know that it’s happened. I can’t say anything about it because I’m not prepared for it.’ (Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), Orlando 1975, p. 123) Famously cryptic, Warhol may not have known how to use words to describe death but a year later he certainly knew how to poignantly and forcefully depict it. His Skull series, a definitive portrait of death, immortalizes mortality. As one of his most autobiographical bodies of work, it also immortalized Andy Warhol into the art historical canon. Possessing a sixth sense, Warhol was yet again apocalyptic when he said ‘death can really make you like a star’ (the artistic as cited exhibition catalogue, Bilbao, Guggenheim, Andy Warhol: A Factory, 2000, n.p.)
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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28

Andy Warhol

Skull

1976
Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen inks on canvas.
38.1 x 48.3 cm. (15 x 19 in).
Signed and dated 'Andy Warhol 1976' on the overlap.

Estimate
£450,000 - 650,000 ‡

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

17 Oct 2009
London

1
Dan Walsh
Layout
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000 ‡
Sold for £30,000
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2
Elmgreen & Dragset
Marriage
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000 ‡♠
Sold for £55,250
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3
Jim Hodges
The Good News (De Morgen)
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £27,500
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4
Sterling Ruby
Monument Stalagmite/Recombine Black & Yellow
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000
Sold for £61,250
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5
Martin Kippenberger
Kippenblinky
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000
Sold for £103,250
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6
Martin Kippenberger
Big Until Great Hunger
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000
Sold for £433,250
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7
Martin Kippenberger
Minimüllcontainer
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000
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8
Martin Kippenberger
Der Herr Joszi
Estimate £350,000 - 500,000
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9
Jonathan Meese
Napoleon
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡♠
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10
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #194
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £85,250
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11
Steven Parrino
Sin City Sag. Fuckhead Bubble-Gum
Estimate £300,000 - 400,000 ‡
Sold for £313,250
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12
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Year of the Boar
Estimate £900,000 - 1,200,000 ‡
Sold for £1,105,250
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13
Hermann Nitsch
Untitled
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ♠†
Sold for £45,650
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14
Jake and Dinos Chapman
The same thing only smaller, or the same size but a long way away
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 Ω♠
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15
Margherita Manzelli
Verifica del funzionamento - spazio vuoto
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £151,250
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16
Paul McCarthy
Untitled (from Propo-Series) (Peaches)
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ‡
Sold for £51,650
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17
Thomas Ruff
Nude qaf06
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡♠
Sold for £46,850
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18
Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #8
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
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19
Michael Raedecker
Beam
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠†
Sold for £73,250
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20
Florian Maier-Aichen
Untitled (Saddle Peak)
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠†
Sold for £103,250
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21
Ugo Rondinone
all moments STOP here and together we become every memory that has ever been
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000 ‡
Sold for £37,250
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22
John McCracken
Actuate
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
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23
Olafur Eliasson
Two Hot Air Columns
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 Ω♠
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24
John Armleder
Untitled
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000
Sold for £40,850
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25
Martin Kippenberger
Untitled
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
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26
Dan Colen
Untitled (Bird Shit)
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000
Sold for £49,250
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27
Christopher Wool
Double Blue Nose (P422)
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £193,250
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28
Andy Warhol
Skull
Estimate £450,000 - 650,000 ‡
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29
On Kawara
APR. 8, 1978
Estimate £190,000 - 220,000 ‡
Sold for £205,250
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30
Lucio Fontana
Concetto Spaziale
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000
Sold for £241,250
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31
Günther Förg
Untitled
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000 ‡♠
Sold for £30,000
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32
Sergej Jensen
Untitled (Yin Yang)
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ♠
Sold for £34,850
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33
Franz West
Sculpture: Meeting Point 2, 2000; Painting: Plakatentwürf (Poster design) (Meeting Points), 2001
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ‡♠
Sold for £121,250
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34
Robert Rauschenberg
Rebundance
Estimate £180,000 - 220,000
Sold for £181,250
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35
John Armleder
Furniture Sculpture 230
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡
Sold for £46,850
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36
Wim Delvoye
Basket
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ‡♠
Sold for £39,650
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37
Francis Alÿs
Untitled
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £57,650
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38
Tony Cragg
Blue Horn (Axt)
Estimate £80,000 - 100,000 ‡♠
Sold for £82,850
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39
Rosemarie Trockel
Ich kannte mich nicht aus
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡♠
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40
Franz West
Platform (2 Paßstücke)
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
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41
Tony Cragg
Paysage Suisse (Swiss Landscape)
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡♠
Sold for £34,850
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42
Jitish Kallat
Suffix (Herbaceous Perennial) - 1
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
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43
Larry Poons
Cotherman
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ‡
Sold for £22,500
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44
Andreas Gursky
Flugzeug Düsseldorf
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ‡♠
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

17 Oct 2009 London

Create your first list.

Provenance

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Andy Warhol

28

Andy Warhol

Skull

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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17 Oct 2009
London