Andy Warhol

Acquired directly from the artist

This work is in very good condition. The colors are more vibrant and saturated than they appear in the catalogue illustration. There are several faint and unobtrusive spot of accretions scattered throughout the surface. There is an area measuring 2 ½ in. of linear cleavages located approximately 3 inches to the right of her chin, faintly visible in the catalogue illustration. There is a minor and faint surface abrasion to the left of the face of the figure, approximately 4 inches from the top and 17 inches from the left edge. The canvas shows evidence of a superficial and very faint diagonal impression extending from the upper left area of the hair through forehead, approximately 8 inches from the top and 21 inches from the left edge, to the right eye. There is evidence of two unobtrusive horizontal bands of discoloration, faintly visible under normal light condition, corresponding with the two horizontal bars of the stretcher. These bands extend the width of the canvas approximately 17 inches from the top edge and the other approximately 19 inches from the bottom. Under ultra-violet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Unframed. Kindly note that although the illustration is flopped in the catalogue, it appears correctly on Sothebys.com.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

...it is instantly clear that Warhol has revived the visual crackle, glitter and chic of older traditions of society portraiture, it may be less obvious that despite his legendary indifference to human facts, he has also captured an incredible range of psychological insights among his sitters.

-         Robert Rosenblum in Exh. Cat., Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, About Face: Andy Warhol Portraits, 1999, p.87

Buxy Gancia's portrait is a ravishing early example of Andy Warhol's Society Portraits.  Ms. Gancia was an early collector of Pop art, a close friend of, and model for, Coco Chanel.  Ms. Gancis became a close friend of Andy Warhol and sat for her portrait in 1971.  Buxy Gancis is set apart from the later works by the increased canvas size (just over 50 inch versus the standard 40 inch format) and the sensuous mysteriousness of the painterly, veil like background.  The over-exposed blue ground obscures the sitter, yet the fresh beauty of the former Chanel model's face cuts through with extreme clarity and force - an exquisite screening lending wonderful expression to her doe-like eyes and classic features.  As David Bourdon remarked, "since the portraits are photographically derived, one might expect them to be extremely realistic.  Paradoxically, they actually give less detailed information about a face than the portraits from life of, say, Philip Pearlstein, Alice Neel or Sylvia Sleigh." (Ibid., p. 90) 

What Warhol masterfully captures in his Society Portraits is the reductive essence of a sitter's most iconic characteristics: Marilyn's red lips, Liz's violet eyes.  The pared down elegance of Warhol's style is powerfully utilized here in this early portrait, one of the first Warhol did of a Society figure.  The energy that permeates the canvas is raw and fresh.  Not yet boiled down to a well practiced art, there is, captured in Buxy's likeness, a uniqueness that separates this work firmly from the critics who claim seriality to the later Society pictures.  "Warhol's portraits deflect the documentary force of photography, glamourizing the evidence delivered by the lense, reimagining it in ways that can endow a simple headshot with the aura of an impossibly intense individuality." (Carter Ratcliff in Tony Shafrazi, ed., Andy Warhol Portraits, New York, 2007, p.21)