Andy Warhol

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 1986

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the background is a stronger peach colour and the skin tones have more pink in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is rubbing to the upper right and to both bottom corners. There is a very small paint loss to the extreme lower right edge and a very faint vertical rub mark towards the lower left edge, in the white area. 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."

"Was I overly impressed? A bit star-struck? Maybe. Maybe Tatum was too. It's a funny thing when two well-known people meet: There's an immediate magnetism, because you seem to have so many things in common – not the least of which is that you both instantly feel liberated from what the rest of the world usually demands."
John McEnroe, Serious, London 2002, p. 188

Offered at auction to benefit the philanthropic organisation Habitat for Humanity, which provides not-for-profit housing through the help of volunteers, Andy Warhol's Portrait of John McEnroe and Tatum O'Neal is the perfect archetype of his so-called 'society' portraits, presenting the incarnation of the golden celebrity couple. Here we have McEnroe and O'Neal during their mid-1980s prime and fully in the glow of the zeitgeist glamour that provided the source for so much of Warhol's most important work. Both of these protagonists had been child prodigies. O'Neal, the daughter of movie star Ryan, was a hugely successful child actor who won an Academy Award for her role in the 1973 film Paper Moon, which at just 10 years old made her the youngest ever winner of an Oscar. McEnroe was a world number one professional tennis player who went on to win seven Grand Slam titles: three at Wimbledon and four at the U.S. Open. He had taken the tennis world by storm when he reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 1977 as a mere eighteen year-old. Although he was subsequently beaten by Jimmy Connors, it was the best ever performance by a qualifier and set off a stunning career related to that prestigious tournament. He also won the US Open in 1979, the youngest player to do so for over thirty years. Particularly remarkable were his epic encounters with Björn Borg, such as their first final at Wimbledon that McEnroe eventually won in the last set by eighteen games to sixteen.

McEnroe and O'Neal were married on 1^st August 1986. This occasion appeared to offer a perfect convergence of youth, beauty, talent, success and glamour: themes that had occupied the oeuvre of Andy Warhol for well over twenty years, from his world-renowned depictions of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe to his corpus of society portraits that portrayed world-famous celebrities of the 1970s and 1980s. In its subject, composition, style and execution, the present work is paradigmatic of Warhol's late style. In addition, it is also typical of Warhol's iconographic intelligence, depicting with the process of replication that facilitates fame two figures that are at once so recognisable and familiar at the same time as embodying the fresh-faced innocence of youth.