Andy Warhol

Leon and Riselle Lerner, New York
By descent to the present owner

This work is in good condition overall. The collaged elements are generally stable though a few of the edges of the appliqué are slightly lifting at the edges. There are additionally a few small scattered losses to the gold leaf. The sheet has slightly yellowed with age with further yellowing at the extreme edges. The sheet exhibits a few pinpoint spots of foxing. Framed under glass.
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.

"When I used to do show drawings for magazines I would get a certain amount for each shoe, so then I would count up my shoes to figure how much I was going to get. I loved by the number of shoe drawings – when I counted them I knew how much money I had." (Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again, New York, 1975, p. 85).

Gold Shoe, circa 1957, drawn in ink and appliquéd in gold leaf and foil, epitomizes the artfulness of even Warhol's most commercial work. Blocked with his distinctive blotted line, a graphic style he developed in college at Carnegie Mellon, Warhol fills in the shoe with dazzling delicacy. With the exaggerated femininity ironically reserved for men in the court of Louis XIV, this single shoe is adorned in pearls and foiled with filigree. These shoe drawings afforded Warhol with a conceptual constraint in which he could work in great detail and with fanciful imagination.

Regardless of Warhol's legacy as a ruler of new bohemia, he came of age professionally during the Eisenhower presidency, in a mid-century American in which "sex of any variety [was] a forbidden subject." Regardless of the material – shoes in this case -- Warhol's line, though it "appears innocent... has an inherent naughtiness and irreverence about it. He fills shoes with sexual innuendos – with snakes and elaborate flourishes – conjuring up the bare feet we do not see." (Judith Goldman, "Warhol's Line" Andy Warhol Drawings & Related Works 1951-1986. New York City, NY: Gagosian Gallery, 2003, p. 5). Although both his style and his subjects would change dramatically in the coming decades, Warhol's concerns with ornament and essence, with iconography and idolatry, would repeat again and again.