ANDY WARHOL | Mickey
Andy Warhol (after)
1928 Pittsburgh - 1987 New York City
Andy Warhol's prints are legendary. However, his oeuvre includes much more, from drawing, painting, film, photography to music. Not for nothing is he considered one of the most important artists of American Pop Art.
Above all others, his silkscreens have become firmly inscribed in cultural memory. Andy Warhol owed one of his earliest successes to the Flowers series. At a 1964 exhibition organized by the famous gallery owner Leo Castelli in New York, the series quickly sold out. For the silkscreen prints, Warhol used a photograph from Modern Photography magazine as a template. When he took it over, the artist reduced the seven flowers to four and turned the format into a square. Each artwork in this series thus contains four brightly colored flowers on green grass with dark outlines. Because Warhol increased the contrasts, the finer details of the photograph disappear. The outlines become the dominant pictorial element, creating a delightfully abstract pattern.
Beginning in the 1970s, the silkscreen prints of "Sunday B. Morning" were printed with high-quality inks on museum board. Entirely in the spirit of Warhol, who himself said: "I don't believe that art should only be for a select few".
// A brief history of Leo Castelli: Born Leo Krauss, Leo Castelli (1907-1999) was one of the more recognizable art dealers of the latter half of the 20th century. The sheer breadth of his taste, encompassing everything from Surrealism to Pop to Minimalism to Conceptual Art and more, largely contributed to his notoriety and eventually made him a subject worthy of depiction in the very art for which he represented.
The son of a prominent banker father, Leo Castelli initially showed an almost obsessive interest in literature, something he could do in four languages, including Italian, French, German and English. His polyglot abilities were due to the emigration of his family, from Austria-Hungary, in the waning days of the empire during the first World War, to Vienna, and then back. Despite his hunger for modern literature, Castelli took the suggestion of his father and studied law in Milan, figuring it would give him the flexibility to enter almost any profession. Another fatherly suggestion landed him in Bucharest, working for an insurance company. It was in Bucharest where he found his first wife, Ileana Schapira, who would become a renowned art dealer and gallerist in her own right. In 1939, the two would open a gallery in Paris with help from Ileana’s father, a gallery that would be a major hub for the best in Surrealist art. Not long after opening, however, the couple fled to New York, due to the outbreak of yet another World War.
Castelli opened a gallery on New York’s 77th Street in 1957 with the intention of showing the best of contemporary American art. It was here that Andy Warhol debuted his Flowers paintings in November 1964, mere months after having had a major show at Ileana’s Galerie in Paris. Like Ferus Gallery owner, Irving Blum, Castelli found nothing much that he liked upon visiting Warhol’s Lexington Ave apartment-cum-studio in the early 60s. It wasn’t until he saw Warhol in the gallery (most likely his early ‘64 show at the Stable Gallery which included his newly minted Brillo and Heinz sculptures) that Castelli was won over and decided to represent him. Warhol would exhibit and debut several future projects—such as his Silver Clouds and Mao portraits—at Castelli’s gallery well into the late 80s. Meanwhile, Castelli would form a reputation as one of the foremost publicists of contemporary American art. Leo Castelli died in Manhattan on August 22, 1999.
// A brief history of Sunday B. Morning: In 1970 the famous Belgian printing house Sunday B. Morning, founded by some friends of Warhol, decided to publish a reprint for Europe of the first series "Marilyn, Mao, Flowers", which had just had an incredible international success. However, Warhol refuses to participate in this new series. Sunday B. Morning does not give up and begins production anyway, putting a stamp on the back of each artwork with the words, "Published by Sunday B. Morning." In response to this action, Warhol decides to personally sign some of these works on the front or back with the words, "This is not mine, Andy Warhol." This playful inscription is an ironic reference to the authorship and authenticity of the work. This is how the series "This is not by me" was born.
The original edition was so successful that the printing company in Belgium decided to produce further copies in the original size and with the original colors and offer them to the market. Warhol and his "Factory" were soon told that there were illegal copies on the market and Warhol was advised to have them banned and destroyed. But Warhol decided otherwise. He legalized the illegal copies by forcing the producer to stamp each copy on the back with the words "published by Sunday B. Morning" and "Fill in your own signature". These stamps are an indication that the copies are not signed by Warhol.
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After the passing of Andy Warhol in 1987, these images were published as prints by the “Editeur Georges Israel”. Warhol's decision in favor of copies was not surprising, since he wanted to make "popular art," that is, art for everyone - and in as large an edition as possible.
Graphic on Arches paper
Signed (in plate) & numbered (by hand)
Verso - blind stamp (Editeur) & blue stamp (Gallery)
Real wood frame - custom made
Acrylic glass, UV 100, glare-free
FSC-certified timber, 100% Made in Germany, 100% Organic
Size 63 x 48 cm
Provenance | Gallery Italy
Differential taxation according to § 25a UStG. No taxes included. | Differenzbesteuerung nach § 25a UStG. Kunstgegenstände und Sammlungsstücke, Sonderregelung.