Andy Warhol

Galleria Il Fauno, Turin
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Milan, Galleria Il Fauno and Alexandre Lolas, Man Ray by Andy Warhol, 1974, nos. 14 and 28, illustrated in colour

Colour: Purple Panel: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly richer, with the pink in the face tending more towards peachy-pink and the purple more to an electric-purple in the original. Green Panel: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly brighter and more vibrant, with the green tending more towards a grass-green, the yellow more to lemon and the black more to deep midnight-blue in the original. The catalogue illustration does not fully convey the rich texture present in certain painted passages, mostly to the green and purple pigment respectively. Purple Panel: This work is in very good condition. There is some slight canvas draw to the lower left corner. There are several minute pinprick-sized media losses, notably to the lower right corner, to the upper left quadrant and in a few isolated spots elsewhere. Upon close examination, a few extremely fine hairline tension cracks are visible to the extreme overturn edges, and there are two further short fine surface cracks to the lower right and left corners. The stretcher nails visible to the extreme overturn sides have oxidised. Green Panel: This work is in very good condition. Upon close inspection there are several tiny spots of media loss including to the lower left and right extreme corner tips and to the lower right overturn corner. There is a fine hairline crack to the bottom of the lower right quadrant, and another to the bottom of the lower right quadrant. Two extremely short minute cracks are visible to the lower right extreme corner tip. On close inspection there are a number of extremely fine isolated hairline tension cracks in places to the extreme overturn edges. A light rub mark is visible upon very close inspection to the green pigment on the right side of the lower extreme edge. The stretcher nails visible to the extreme overturn sides have oxidised. No restoration is apparent under ultraviolet light.
"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."

Drawn from a series of portraits of the celebrated photographer and artist man Ray, this remarkable work was completed by Warhol in 1974, just two years before Man Ray's death.

With the use of identical source images of Man Ray including cigar, overlaid with Warhol's signature vibrant colours, this double portrait can be interpreted as a cursory nod to the logistics of photography with its film reels and contact sheets, an art process familiar to both men.

The portrait of Man Ray is atypical of Warhol's characteristic depictions of ephemeral celebrity, in so far as it represents an intensely personal and reverent homage by the younger artist towards an avant-garde innovator from whom he derived inspiration, and saw clear personal parallels. Both artists, with their newly Americanized eastern European names, fulfilled the promise of the American Dream by using their talents to establish themselves, and to gain access to the celebrity that they venerated.

Warhol's early 1960s portraiture developed as a natural evolution from his unique, large-scale renderings of ostensibly familiar or untraditional objects.  From his depictions of mass-produced inanimate objects presented as subjects reaching their apogee with the Campbell's Soup Can, Warhol then followed with his serial depictions of mass-media images of Hollywood celebrities. As impersonal and quirky as his previous efforts had been, the shift in his subject matter to include living people - albeit using official headshots and newspaper photographs as stimuli - resulted in Warhol's first portrait commissions. Just as Man Ray had captured the ideas and spirit of his time, Warhol's portrait commissions allowed him access to celebrity and high society, making these works an extraordinary catalogue of the emerging zeitgeist of the cult of celebrity that has remained current to this day.

Sharing Man Ray's intuitive eye for the pertinent and prescient, Warhol went beyond capturing the mood and values of his epoch but more emphatically, packaged, embellished and made it aspirational in a way that would profoundly influence the course of twentieth century art.