- 38
Andy Warhol
Description
- Andy Warhol
- San Francisco Silverspot
- signed and dated 83 on the overlap
- acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas
- 152.4 by 152.4 cm; 60 by 60 in.
Provenance
C2 Gallery, Tokyo
Sotheby’s, New York, 7 November 1990, Lot 311 (consigned by the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Andy Warhol, August - October 1992
Vienna, KunstHausWien, Andy Warhol, February - May 1993
Athens, Galerie Nationale, Andy Warhol, June - August 1993
Thessaloniki, National Gallery, Andy Warhol, August - September 1993
Orlando, Orlando Museum of Art, Andy Warhol, October - December 1993
Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Andy Warhol, January 1993 - March 1994, p. 54, illustrated in colour
Taipei, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Andy Warhol: 1928-1987, October - November 1994
Lausanne, Fondation de l’Hermitage, Andy Warhol, May - October 1995, p. 76, illustrated in colour
Milan, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Andy Warhol, October 1995 - February 1996
Ludwigshafen, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Andy Warhol, September 1996 - January 1997, p. 147, no. 107, illustrated in colour
Helsinki, Helsinki Kunsthalle, Andy Warhol, August - November 1997
Warsaw, The National Museum in Warsaw; and Krakow, The National Museum in Krakow, Andy Warhol, March - July 1998
Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Warhol, October - December 1999
Kochi, The Museum of Art; Tokyo, The Bunkamura Museum of Art; Osaka, Daimaru Museum; Hiroshima, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art; Sakura, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art; Nagoya, Nagoya City Art Museum; and Niigata, Niigata City Art Museum, Andy Warhol, February 2000 - February 2001, p. 169, no. 164, illustrated in colour
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
The Silverspot is a species of butterfly whose wings are eye-catching with a brown, tan, and black scalloped pattern on their surfaces and orange-brown with characteristic silver spots on the undersides. Here the flawlessly slick print shows Warhol as absolute technical master of the technique that he pioneered. He re-imagines the endangered butterfly, implementing a palette of Day-Glo colours, characteristic of his distinct Pop aesthetic. As it flutters gracefully among the sea of radiating white blades of grass, the butterfly of Endangered Species: San Francisco Silverspot is bejewelled with brilliant reds, greens, blues, and yellows. While painterly in essence, the graphic quality is very much palpable through the vivid and expressive movement of line. It is archetypal of the chromatic brilliance and cartoon-like aesthetic that defines the series.
By the time the present work was produced, Warhol had already achieved fame and fortune for his stylised silkscreen paintings of the 1960s and '70s, which transformed images into high-art icons. He endlessly and obsessively repeated the likeness of celebrities, Pop culture icons, and mass media images over and over again, and in so doing, re-enacted the kind of mechanical reproduction of images that were splashed across the covers of newspapers and television screens. In his final decade he and his art had become synonymous with contemporary American culture itself, yet, this modus operandi took on another dimension when Warhol began appropriating images not only from contemporary mass culture, but from a plight that was not yet highlighted by American society. Indeed, the Endangered Species works affirm Warhol’s status as wry commentator who continually challenged the status quo of the art world and of society in general. It was this highly attuned sense of cultural behaviour that allowed Warhol to create works, such as the Endangered Species series, that today remain deeply relevant.