Great Masters

The son of poor Czech immigrants, Andy Warhol studied at the Institute of Applied Arts of Philadelphia and started a career in New York as an advertising designer.

After settling on Lexington Avenue he executed posters and drawings of shoes for Glamour magazine in 1950. He also produced Christmas cards for Tiffanys and illustrations for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar.

His involvement in the advertising sector surely played a major role in the ensuing development of Pop Art notably when he was employed as a window decorator for the Bonwit store where Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, two main figures of that movement, were also working.

Warhol made a round the world trip in 1956 and notably visited Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Egypt, Italy and Holland but did not make stops in Paris or London.

His first exhibition took place in a fashion and restaurant shop where he showed shoe-portraits which earned him a two-page coverage in Life magazine. He then exhibited portraits painted in a technique recalling that of Christian Brard, a French theatre decorator, but in a rather conventional style however expressing his personality.

In 1960, after a decade of Abstract Expressionism and a short period during which Dada collages and assemblages were produced a new atmosphere prevailed in New York with the rise of Pop Art and the success met by such artists as Motherwell, de Kooning, Rauschenberg or Jasper Johns. Warhol was still outside that movement and painted a series of works inspired by comic books heroes such as Popeye, Superman or Dick Tracy. He then understood that he needed to adopt an impersonal and cold technique and after noting that the capital element in U.S life was the dollar bank note, he painted a series of dollar bills in different colours.@@Then came the series of Campbells Soup cans somewhat reflecting the American way of life, which he promoted with other consuming goods as art works.

This time he had understood that hand-painting did not correspond with any faithful reproduction of already graphical objects that had to be repeated in various series. Bank notes and Campbells Soup cans were produced in 1962 and Warhol adopted afterwards the serigraph method for other themes such as Coca Cola bottles, Heinz Tomato ketchup and the Brillo washing powder.

Warhol also embarked on producing series dedicated to other myths of the U.S society such as movie stars Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor or Rock N Roll legend Elvis Presley. All these themes were multiplied or zoomed with various effects accentuating their obsessive meanings.

The exhibition of such series at the Stable Gallery in November 1962 was a triumphal success for Warhol. At the same time he took part in a major Pop Art exhibition at Sydney Janis gallery and participated in December in a Pop Art symposium at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The following year he settled at 47 East Street in a huge studio, which he called The Factory. There with the help of Grard Malanga he produced hundreds of his famous silk screen series that were immediately sold to galleries and collectors.

Warhol went on to produce series of themes based on terror, which replaced the modern man subject such as Suicide in 1962, The Atomic Bomb and Car Crashes in 1963, Racial Riots, Portraits of Wanted Criminals or the Electric Chair in 1964.

Warhol exhibited his series of Flowers in 1964 and in 1965 was almost trampled down by a mad crowd during the opening of his exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

He exhibited his series of Cows in 1966 when the close link that united photographic transcription with Duchamps ready-made theory was established in his works. In both cases there was an appropriation of an object or an image taken from a daily context. With Duchamp the object taken off was promoted to the rank of an art object through the artists sole choice whereas with Warhol such promotion was amplified was amplified by multiple reproductions and the various resources of mass communication well mastered by the former advertising designer.

Warhol reduced his painting activity in 1966 after deciding to promote The Factory, which became through his sophisticated personality the true object of his creative action. The Factory was transformed into a movie studio where Warhol produced underground films with Paul Morissey.

Such films were mostly based on eroticism and homosexuality with an acute obsession regarding time passing by. One of these films, which lasted over 10 hours, showed a man asleep or the Empire State Building at different hours of the day. Other less provocative movies dealt with sexual deviations. As an artist and movie director, Warhol used advertising and mass media techniques mirroring Americas isolated and amplified image that Warhol personified even more than his own works did.

Main results for works by Warhol:

Marilyn, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 40.6 x 30.5 cm: US $ 300,000, March 11th 1998, Sothebys New York
Self-portrait, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, circa 1967, 200.8 x 177.9 cm: US $ 2,2 million, May 12th 1998, Christies New York
4 Marilyn, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 1962, 73 x 54.9 cm: $ 2,1 million, November 17th 1998, Sothebys, New York
Self-portrait, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1963, 50.8 x 40.6 cm: $ 360,000, May 14th 1998, Sothebys New York
Four-Foot Flowers, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1964, 122 x 122 cm: $ 805,714, July 2nd 1998, Sothebys London
Four Electric Chairs, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1964, 111.7 x 142.3 cm: $ 1,191,786, December 10th 1998, Christies London
Orange Marilyn, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1964, 101.6 x 101.6 cm: $ 15,750,000, May 14th 1998, Sothebys New York
Flowers, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, six panels, 1964, 121.9 x 182.9 cm: $ 825,000, May 14th 1998, Sothebys New York
Flowers, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1964, 152.4 x 152.4 cm: $ 600,000, November 17th 1998, Sothebys New York
Flowers, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 55.9 x 55.9 cm: $ 140,000, November 18th 1998, Sothebys New York
Two foot Flowers, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas,, 60.9 x 60.9: $ 147,714, October 23rd 1998, Christies London
Four Jackies, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1965, 50.9 x 40.6 cm: $ 350,000, May 12th 1998, Christies New York
16 Jackies, acrylic and silkscreen inks on canvas, 6 panels, 1965, 204.5 x 162.6 cm: $ 1,7 million, November 17th 1998
Self-portrait, acrylic, silkscreen inks and crayon on canvas, 1966, 57.2 x 57.2 cm: $ 450,000, November 17th 1998, Sothebys New York
Mao N19, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1973, 66.5 x 56.5 cm: $ 402,857, July 2nd 1998, Christies London
Mao, acrylic, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 30.5 x 22.5 cm: $ 209,821, December 9th 1998, Christies London
Mick Jagger, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1975-76, 101.6 x 101.6 cm: $ 170,000, May 15th 1998, Sothebys New York
Judy Garland, acrylic and silkscreen inks on canvas, 101.6 x 101.6 cm: $ 230,000, November 18th 1998, Sothebys New York
Judy Garland, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1978, 101.7 x 101.7 cm: $ 268,571, July 2nd 1998, Sothebys London
Multicoloured Marilyn, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1979-86, 46 x 35.6 cm: $ 190,000, May 15th 1998, Sothebys New York
Nine multicoloured Marilyn acrylic and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1979-86, 139.1 x 106.7 cm: $ 600,000, November 17th 1998, Sothebys New York
Joseph Beuys, Synthetic polymer, diamond powder and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1980, 101.7 x 101.7 cm: 201,429, July 2nd 1998, Sothebys London
Dollar Sign, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas,, 1981, 229 x 178 cm: $ 184,643, December 9th 1998, Christies London
Campbells Soup, acrylic and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1985, 185.4 x 152.4 cm: $ 170,000, November 18th 1998, Sothebys New York
Self-portrait, polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas,, two panels, 102 x 204 cm: $ 604,286, December 10th 1998, Christies London
Big Torn Campbells Soup Can, acrylic and crayon on canvas, 1962, 182.9 x 137.2 cm: $ 3,2 million, May 7th 1997, Christies New York
Coloured Campbells Soup Can, oil on canvas, 1965, 91.4 x 61 cm: $ 350,000, May 6th 1997, Sothebys New York
Marlon, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1966, 104.1 x 116.8 cm: $ 1,5 million, November 19th 1997
Lenin, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1966, 213 x 178 cm: $ 285,357, December 11th 1997, Christies London,
Self-portrait, synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 203.2 x 193 cm: $ 350,000, November 19th 1997, Sothebys New York
Self portraits, Four polymer silk screens on canvas, 101.6 x 101.6 each: $ 950,000, November 18th 1997, Christies New York
Mao, acrylic and silkscreen inks on canvas, 1972, 208 x 142 cm: 1,037,000, June 26th 1996, Sothebys London

Andy Warhol
Drawings, 1942-1987,
Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, USA - until april 30th