The 19th century palace Neuschwanstein sits atop a rugged hill above the village Hohenschwangau in southwest Bavaria. Commissioned by King Ludwig II, the castle served as a retreat for the king and was built in honour of the famous German composer Richard Wagner. Intended as a private residence for the royal family, construction started in 1869 but was never completed. Shortly after the king’s death in 1886 the castle was opened to the public and has since become one of the most well-known attractions in Europe, and the most photographed building in Germany.
Built in the Neo-Romanesque style, with enchanting, majestic, and larger-than-life qualities, the castle has inspired many artists over the last century. Most famously being the inspiration for the Disneyland Magic Castle, its elegant towers have become synonymous with ‘fairy tale’ and used as the Walt Disney logo since 1985.
Commissioned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Bavarian Reinsurance Company in Munich in 1987, Andy Warhol's Neuschwanstein was based on a tourism poster. Unlike the artist’s other architectural works, which focus on detailed views of iconic landmarks, Warhol shows the castle in its breath-taking landscape. Inspired by the aesthetic qualities of its architecture, Warhol chose an immediately recognisable image for this print, and in so doing, tied his obsession with fame into the notion of historical significance. Representing the castle in bright flat colour, the artist brings it into the future, making it a modern sensation equal in value to its past life's importance.
Disneyland (entrance to Sleeping Beauty’s Enchanted Castle), 1857. Image: © Everett Collection / Bridgeman Images Provenance
Schellmann Art, Munich
Literature
see Frayda Feldman and Jörg Schellmann 372
see Jörg Schellmann, ed., Forty Are Better Than One, Munich/New York, 2009, p. 353Artist 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.
Property of an Important German Collector
60
Neuschwanstein (S. 372)
1987
Unique screenprint in colours, on Arches 88 paper, with full margins.
I. 89.5 x 67 cm (35 1/4 x 26 3/8 in.)
S. 110 x 77.6 cm (43 1/4 x 30 1/2 in.)
Signed and annotated 'TP' in pencil (one of 25 unnumbered unique colour variant trial proofs, the edition was 100 and 25 artist's proofs), with the artist's copyright inkstamp on the reverse, co-published by Edition Schellmann, Munich and New York, and Maximilian Verlag Sabine Knust, Munich, unframed.
Estimate
£20,000 - 30,000 ‡
Sold for £52,920
Rebecca Tooby-Desmond
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Robert Kennan
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Anne Schneider-Wilson
Senior International Specialist, Editions
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Evening & Day Editions
London Auction 14-15 June 2022
177
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178
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206
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