Contemporary Art Day Sale

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Lot 213
  • 213

Andy Warhol

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
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Description

  • Andy Warhol
  • 25 Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy
  • signed, titled and dedicated to Leonard Kessler on the cover; signed and inscribed This edition consists of 190 copies which have been printed by Seymour Berlin, P.L.9.8070.  This is copy no. 69. 25 Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy was written by Charles Lisanby.
  • bound book consisting of hand colored off-set lithograph, ink and watercolor on paper
  • 9 1/4 by 6 1/8 by 1/2 in. 23.5 by 15.5 by 1.3 cm.
  • Executed circa 1954, this book is numbered 69 from and edition of 190.

Provenance

Acquired by the present owner directly from the artist

Literature

Exh. Cat., Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, A Picture Show by Andy Warhol, 1976, cat. nos. 136-143, pp. 130-131, illustrated (another example, eight pages from book)
Jesse Kornbluth, Pre-Pop Warhol, New York, 1988, no. 35, pp. 99-103, illustrated in color (another example: cover and four pages from book)
David Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, cat. nos. 38-40, pp. 48-49, illustrated in color (another example: cover and two pages from book)
Exh. Cat., Kunstmuseum Basel [and traveling], Andy Warhol: Drawings 1942-1987, 1998, cat. nos. 44-45, n.p., illustrated in color (another example)
Goliga Books, Andy Warhol: Drawings and Illustrations of the 1950s, Tokyo, 2000, pp. 30-32, illustrated in color (another example: cover and two pages from book)
Frayda Feldman and Claudia Defendi, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987, New York, 2003, cat. no. IV 52B-68B, p. 333, illustrated in color (another example)

Catalogue Note

Andy Warhol and Leonard Kessler became friends while studying at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh when Warhol was seventeen. During their junior year, the two artists exchanged drawings and Mr. Kessler received a wonderfully poignant self-portrait of Warhol.  In the 1950s, he sublet his New York apartment on Lexington Avenue to Andy and his mother Julia and their 25 Siamese cats. As Mr. Kessler recently recalled, ``Julia had a name for each one....`that's the good Sam... the bad Sam.. the crooked eye Sam... the fat Sam... etc.). Andy self published a book 25 Cats Named Sam with calligraphy by Julia. ....My fondest memory of Julia and Andy and those incredible cats at 242 Lex. ...was Julia's sermon each day to Andy and me...`Andy WORK!' `Kessler work!' ''.