Andy Warhol

Acquired directly from the artist in 1972

Hamburg, Galerie Gunter Sachs, Andy Warhol, 1972
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Große Retrospecktive, 2003
Leipzig, Museum der Bildenden Künste, Gunter Sachs, 2008, p. 62 and p.124, illustrated in colour
Paris, Galeries Nationals du Grand Palais, Warhol: Le Grande Monde d'Andy Warhol, 2009, p. 143, no. 162, illustrated in colour

Rainer Crone, Andy Warhol: Das Zeichnerische Werk 1942-1975, Stuttgart 1976, no. 604
Neil Printz and Sally King Nero, (Eds.), The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 03: Paintings and Sculptures 1970-1974, New York 2010, p. 128, no. 2220, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is deeper and richer in the original work. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Upon very close inspection, there are several very faint rub marks to the pink hair and a tiny indented rub mark beneath the upper right corner tip. There is a faint brown rub mark to the left cheek. There are two red specks of paint to the pink hair, a green speck of paint to the left tip of the figure’s shirt and several tiny bumps to the canvas to the pink area in the lower right quadrant. All appear to be original to the work’s execution. There is no evidence of an retouching when examined 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."

Andy Warhol – Gunter Sachs – 1972

In a fateful meeting at Le Gorille bar in Saint Tropez in the spring of 1967, Andy Warhol and Gunter Sachs laid the foundations for a collaborative and enduring friendship grounded in reciprocal like-mindedness and respect. Indeed, their initial meeting marked a seismic change for Sachs and the future of his collection. Though impressively already aware of Warhol's then nascent reputation as the foremost proponent of the burgeoning Pop Art movement, it was their face to face encounter that impelled Sachs to acquire and commission some of Warhol's most iconic works. Moreover, this meeting would inspire Sachs to personally undertake a promotional project in Germany: in 1972, Sachs opened his own gallery in Milchstrasse in Hamburg and, alongside Bruno Bischofberger, organised one of the first fully comprehensive exhibitions of Warhol's work in Europe. With great vision and foresight, Sachs looked to disseminate the relatively obscure Warhol to the moneyed European elite. Bearing witness to this great event was the series of eight commissioned portraits of Gunter Sachs painted by Warhol for the exhibition. An array of kaleidoscopic effigies rendered in the artist's iconic silk-screen technique, these commissioned portrayals are at once exceptional as pioneering examples from the pivotal corpus of 'Society Portraits', whilst encapsulating the essence of Gunter Sachs and Andy Warhol's friendship. Radiating luminous pink and strident cobalt blue, the present work utterly enshrines the spirit of Gunter Sachs' life and times.

Sachs nostalgically recalled first meeting Warhol in the spring of 1967: "I met him late at the bar 'Le Gorille' in the port of Saint-Tropez... He was having a Seven-up and I had French Fries. 'Are you Gunter Sachs?' I looked up, reflected, and then the penny dropped: 'Yes, and you are Andy.' This recognition was by no means obvious, for at the time American 'village' and underground publishers were practically the only ones reporting on Andy Warhol and Pop Art. 'You always have spirited people on your boat. Would you like to see some extracts from my last movie?' You bet we did! 'Then depart for Cannes at five o'clock. I am staying at the Carlton'. Chapeau! I assembled the motley crew, and off we went by speed boats to Cannes. Andy was already waiting for us in front of the Carlton. He led us into a small bedroom whose simplicity made for an amazing contrast with the pompous hall. The projector was set and ready. When Andy busied himself with the reel I wanted to help him and put up the bedsheet as a screen. 'No, no, that's alright' – and he projected the film onto the flower-patterned wall paper. In those days I was making movies myself. I never felt such a deep respect for self-assured lack of concern. A perfectionist like myself would have found it appalling to project my films onto a flowery wall paper. Andy just said: 'It may even help'" (Gunter Sachs, 'Encounters with Andy Warhol' in: Exhibition Catalogue, Cologne, Chapel Art Centre, German Photography in the Rhineland, 1995, p. 9). This experience incited a sea-change in Sachs' collecting activity; where he had already assembled an impressive breadth of Nouveau Réaliste and Informel art, Warhol's enigmatic personality had irrefutably affirmed the revolutionary power of Pop – subsequently the work of Andy Warhol would comprise the nucleus of Sachs' collection.

Significantly it was Warhol who first sought out Sachs in Saint Tropez and not vice versa; the glamorous and wealthy husband of Bridget Bardot who had carved a name for himself as a serious and farsighted art collector, was exactly the kind of charismatic personality that enthralled Warhol. The artist was in Cannes to promote his film 'Chelsea Girls'; however when screening opportunities failed to materialise, Warhol and his entourage decided to stay on in the South of France to soak up the glamorous ambience of Saint Tropez and socialise with the glitterati. After meeting at Le Gorille bar, Sachs invited Warhol and his enclave back to his home to meet and dine with his then wife, the screen siren Brigitte Bardot. Warhol, though a celebrity in his own right by this point, was immediately entranced by the glamorous couple. Indeed, as explicated by Glenn O'Brien, though Warhol had relinquished painting in 1965 in favour of a film career, "Cannes had probably been the handwriting on the wall for him, the end of his mental retirement from painting. He must have realised then that even if film was his future, painting was still the way to 'bring home the bacon', and there were great portraits still to be made" (Glenn O'Brien, 'And Warhol Created Bardot' in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Gagosian, Andy Warhol: Brigitte Bardot, London 2011, p. 19).

Two years later Sachs would devote the refurbishment of his apartment in the tower of the luxurious Palace Hotel in St Moritz to a totally immersive Pop art environment. Upon their completion in 1972, Warhol's portraits of Gunter Sachs, and later the 1974 portraits of Brigitte Bardot, took pride of place in Sachs' concept apartment. Commissioned as exhibits for the 1972 Hamburg gallery show chiefly organised by Sachs himself, these works were complemented by an encompassing survey of Warhol's work to date. Although the opening was very well publicised and attended by a large number of Sachs' international friends, remarkably, not a single painting sold. To save both his and Warhol's honour Sachs came to acquire almost a third of the works exhibited; Sachs remembered in 1995: "I had not expected too great an interest on the part of the conservative Hamburg establishment anyway. But I could not possibly admit this state of affairs to Andy... So I secretly took on about a third of the exhibits myself and reported them to Andy as sold. He was happy with it, and I will forever be indebted to the people of Hamburg and their then still dormant expertise in art." (Gunter Sachs, 'Encounters with Andy Warhol' in: Exhibition Catalogue, Cologne, Chapel Art Centre, German Photography in the Rhineland, 1995, p. 10). Alongside the commissioned portraits of himself, Sachs came to acquire an outstanding and substantial cross-section of Warhol's output: a collection which, spurred by unwavering passion, continued to grow throughout Sachs' lifetime.

While positioned at the very heart of the Gunter Sachs Collection, this painting also stands at the very forefront of Warhol's single handed revival, and Twentieth Century revision, of the nineteenth century tradition of grand-style portraiture of the rich, glamorous and important. After the portrait commissioned by Bruno Bischofberger in 1971 and the former Chanel model Buxy Gancia, Sachs' portrait commission was first among the extensive series of Society Portraits painted by Warhol. After recovering from his shooting in 1968 and following his dedicated foray into film making since his 'retirement from painting' in '65, Warhol returned to his principle medium. Collectively known as the 'Society Portraits', these works appeared in direct correlation with Warhol's own ascending stardom; as propounded by Robert Rosenblum in 1979: "Warhol's upward mobility was supersonic. Instead of getting the super stars' photos from movie magazines or the Sunday color supplement, he himself quickly invaded their society on equal terms, and could be begged by prospective sitters to turn his own Polaroid camera on their fabled faces in both public and private moods. He had become a celebrity among celebrities, and an ideal court painter to the 1970s international aristocracy that mixed, in wildly varying proportions, wealth, high fashion, and brains" (Robert Rosenblum, 'Andy Warhol Court Painter to the 70s', Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Whitney Museum, Andy Warhol Portraits of the Seventies, 1979, p. 15).
Alongside the iconic portraits of Brigitte Bardot commissioned to hang in St Moritz apartment, Warhol's Gunter Sachs represents a unique anomaly within the artist's illustrious production. Executed in the unusual dimensions of 48 by 48 inches, these portraits are noticeably larger than the criterion of 40 inch canvases employed for his Society Portraits. Furthermore, where Warhol customarily took his own source imagery with his famous Polaroid 'Big Shot' camera, Sachs' portrait utilises the glamorous picture taken by the photographer Jay Ullal. Exuding movie-star good looks, these portraits hark back to Warhol's earliest silk-screen film-star icons culled from publicity stills or magazine photo shoots. What's more, exhibiting vibrant complementary colours and a solid delineation between the layers of paint, the Gunter Sachs portraits stand in stark contrast to the expressionist painterly execution redolent across the gamut of Warhol's 1970s production. Radiating magnetic star-quality and set against a background of foliage that echoes Warhol's 1960s Flowers, Gunter Sachs' silk-screen effigy elicits the truly archetypal and classic Pop style synonymous with Andy Warhol's iconic Twentieth Century canon.