Andy Warhol

The Estate of Andy Warhol
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York
Gagosian Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

New York, Gagosian Gallery, Andy Warhol Diamond Dust Shoes, September - October 1999, p. 31, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. There is some evidence of wear particularly at the the edges with isolated areas of pinpoint paint loss. There is fine craquelure at the pull margins. There is an unobtrusive impact impression in the upper-right corner located 3 ½ in. from the right edge and 1 in. from the top. There is a faint 4 ½ in. scuff mark along the left lateral edge, located approximately 12 in. from the bottom edge and a 4 in. T-shaped scuff mark located 10 in. from the left edge and 2 in. from the top. There is an observable nuance in the tonality of the surface extending horizontally across the upper tier of the composition ( approximately 3 ¼ in. from the top edge) which appears inherent to the artist's working method and which corresponds to the successive registers of the silkcreen. There is an area in the lower-right corner of the composition which fluoresces white under UV inspection and which is presumably a media accretion, as there is no evidence of inpainting under UV light inspection. Unframed.
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Andy Warhol's interest in shoes spanned his entire career. He first made his name in the 1950s as a major illustrator in New York drawing shoes for major shoe designers and magazines of the time, such as I. Miller and Glamour. Always elegantly depicted, Andy's shoes were right on the cutting edge of fashion and at the height of glamour, reflecting the most in vogue styles of the age.

When Warhol decided to re-visit this emblematic theme in his oeuvre in 1980, he had just begun to develop a new silkscreen printing technique involving the use of diamond dust. First presented to him by Rupert Smith around 1979, this medium seemed purpose made for Warhol. Sparkling and glittering, the inherent qualities of diamond dust make a direct reference to movie star glamour, high fashion fame and money. Perhaps because Warhol loved the glamour of gems and had his own collection of jewellery, the artist was immediately enchanted by this new material and wanted to incorporate it into his paintings and prints. However, the real diamond dust proved too powdery and did not sparkle enough for Warhol's taste, so Smith ordered pulverized glass from an industrial supply company in New Jersey. With this new form of diamond dust he was able to cultivate a technique whereby the dust would adhere to the surface of the canvas in much the same manner as a silkscreened color, although with a slightly more raised relief surface.


Warhol gathered shoes of all shapes and sizes from everywhere, some even from his own collection, and assembled them in his studio at 860 Broadway. Placed on white paper, he took a series of Polaroids of various groupings and as with most of his works, chose his favorite images from which to make a series of paintings on the theme. The present work is one of the largest sizes he made and exhibits a harmonious horizontal composition with all the tips of the shoes pointing towards the right in a slightly disarrayed but organized fashion. The deep hues of lavish pink, orange and rich black collide on the surface, enhanced by the glistening diamond dust which catches the light and shimmers extravagantly. As with all of his great icons, Warhol has somehow managed to select a very banal and everyday image and elevate its status. Picked randomly from all sorts of locations, these shoes suddenly come alive with an ethereal quality which somehow makes them much more precious than the sum of their parts.