Andy Warhol

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1994

London, Tate Gallery, Sttutgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Hamburg, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, The Froehlich Foundation. German and American Art from Beuys and Warhol, 1996-97, p. 219, no. 271, illustrated
Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie; London, Tate Modern, Andy Warhol Retrospective, 2001-2, p. 85, no. 35, illustrated in colour
Karlsruhe, Museum für Neue Kunst im ZKM Karlsruhe, on loan, 2002-03
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum; Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms, 2007-08
Ishøj, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Warhol & Basquiat, 2011-12, p. 62, no. 12, illustrated in colour

Exhibition Catalogue, Madrid Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Pop Art Myths, 2014, p. 76, no. 60, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue are fairly accurate, although illustration fails to fully convey the metallic quality of the gold leaf apparent in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is evidence of light and unobtrusive handling marks along the edges, to the lower right corner and around the figure, most of which are visible in the catalogue illustration. There are some losses in places on the gold leaf, which are visible in the catalogue illustration and in keeping with the artist’s choice of materials. There is extremely light staining to the two extreme vertical and upper edges.
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Boldly posing on a chair with his arms crossed, his body covered in gold leaf, Andy Warhol’s Seated Male from 1957 is a stunning example of the artist’s rare gold-leaf drawings. This period marked a point in the young artist’s career in which his activities as an established commercial illustrator in the New York advertising industry were more than ever intertwined with his ambitions to establish himself as a fine artist. In the present example, the dichotomy of seemingly ‘high’ and ‘commercial’ art is wonderfully illustrated. The extensive use of gold leaf as a symbol of a consumerist and kitsch-affected culture is counterbalanced by the colour’s strength and dominance that gives the male sitter a statuesque aura as if detached and elevated from the common world. The intensity of the gold is further emphasised by its contrast with the white paper. Warhol’s delicate use of black ink to denote the sitter’s body and face in a classical style results in almost abstract lines, which nonetheless evoke the beauty and masculinity of the subject. The sitter’s gaze is at once full frontal directed towards the viewer yet also appears glazed, even empty, as if looking further into the distance. It is this play with ambiguity on multiple levels that demonstrate the technical skills of an artist who would a few years later revolutionise the entire art world and its establishment. The art historian Heiner Bastian wrote on the drawings of this early period: “[…] Warhol’s portraits of men have the charm of erotic allusion because they admit their hidden or open associations. These drawings can also be seen as a mirror of Warhol’s life at the time; they are perhaps amongst the most poetic examples of his work during the 1950s.” (Heiner Bastian, Ed., Andy Warhol Retrospective, London 2002, p. 18)