Andy Warhol

Aram Iynedjian, Lausanne
Acquired directly from the above by the father of the present owner circa 1970

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is brighter and more vibrant in the original. The pink is much stronger and more prominent, and the green is a flourescent lime green colour in the original. The background tends more towards deep sea green in the original. Condition: This work is in good condition. There are artist's staple holes to the top right corner and towards the centre right edge. There is minor undulation along the top edge. There is a very small nick to the extreme top edge towards the right corner and minor rubbing to the top right and lower left corners. There is a very small unobtrusive media accretion in the middle finger towards the right and a very faint drip mark just above and right of the top of the ear. No restoration is apparent under ultra-violet 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."

The inscrutable pose that Warhol adopts for the 1966-1967 self-portraits, staring out of the canvas with an unswerving gaze seemingly devoid of any legible emotion, is rendered all the more enigmatic in the present example by virtue of the reversal of the screenprint and the bold chromatic palette used to transpose this negative image of the artist. Abandoning simulated flesh tones entirely for the first time, Warhol found new freedom in the present series in his unbridled pursuit of the elusive notion of fame.  More than any of the series that preceded it - be they of Marilyn Monroe or Jacqueline Kennedy - the present self-portrait reveals the artist grappling less with physiognomic likeness and more directly with the intangible quintessence of fame and celebrity.

 

Freed from the representational prerogatives of traditional portraiture, in Self-Portrait Warhol's self-image becomes an impersonal motif to be explored in almost abstract terms. Recalling Rothko's nuanced series of vaporous and emotively charged chromatic rectangles, in this series Warhol interrogates the semantics of colour. In Self-Portrait, the reversal of the image throws the theatrically lit right side of the face into a planar zone of green, effectively flattening and abstracting the image into an imbrication of coloured forms. By contrast, it is the vibrant neon pink, the last of five layers of ink applied in the screenprinting process, which is thrown into relief by the Prussian blue background. These multiple screens behave like residual traces of a previously glimpsed image, making the entire work oscillate, as if several frames of a film are stilled and superimposed one on top of the other. Warhol's interest and expertise in film-making had been evolving progressively and 1967 saw him go to the Cannes Film Festival. It is no coincidence that this dynamic, modern medium should profoundly influence his image making.

 

In striving to capture himself on canvas, Warhol succeeds capturing the spirit of his age. Here, the incongruous colour scheme, coupled with the optical dislocation of the reversed image, capture at once the psychedelia of the 1960s and the narcotic induced darkness of the Velvet Underground, whose first album was released that year. Unmistakably a self-portrait, it nonetheless goes beyond the remit of self-portraiture to expose something elemental to the cultural fabric of the age in which it was painted.