Andy Warhol

Fred Dorfman Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1993

This work is in very good condition overall. The surface is slightly soiled and there is evidence of light wear, particularly at the edges. There are scattered areas of fine and stable craquelure, particularly in the more densely painted white areas, the most apparent of which is located 2 in. from the right edge and 2 ¾ in. from the bottom edge. There is an area of liquid accretion located ¾ in. from the right edge and 4 in. from the top edge. There is no apparent evidence of restoration visible when examined under UV light. Framed.
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.

Andy Warhol's Dollar Signs are as salient and resonant today as when the artist executed them in the early 1980's. Conceived in an era of conspicuous consumption, excess and the type of Wall Street power-brokering that was personified through such archetypes as Oliver Stone's inimitable Gordon Gekko, the Dollar Signs dually reflect the artist's well-documented preoccupation with fortune and fame. For Warhol, the son of poor immigrants from the Carpathian Mountains of Czechoslovakia, money served as a proverbial brass ring and a point of entry to the glamorous life to which he aspired. Like his celebrated Soup Cans, the Dollar Signs initially emerged from a desire to represent the quotidian and the commonplace in his art. In response to his incessant search for a worthy subject, his friend Muriel Latow famously proposed in December of 1961, "you should paint pictures of money... you should paint something that everybody sees every day." (Heiner Bastian, "Rituals of Unfulfillable Individuality-The Whereabouts of Emotions" Berlin, 2001, p. 25). Warhol would engage this subject in earnest some twenty years later. Now wealthy, well-established and an undisputed celebrity, Warhol displayed both an aesthetic appreciation and a casual irreverence for money, observing, "American money is very well-designed, really. I like it better than any other kind of money. I've thrown it in the East River down by the Staten Island Ferry just to see it float." ( Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, New York, 1975, p. 137) In the end, for Warhol, the Dollar Sign represented the fulfillment of the "American Dream," an unabashed declaration and affirmation of having "made it."