Andy Warhol

Estate of Andy Warhol
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York
Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles
Jonathan Novak, Los Angeles
Private Collection, California
Sotheby's S|2, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

New York, Sotheby's S|2, Divine Comedy, September - October 2012, pp. 104-105, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. The colors are fresh and clean. The canvas has been stretched over a linen lining which is not adhered to the verso of the canvas. There is evidence of light wear and handling along the edges including some minor and unobtrusive hairline craquelure at the pull margins. Under very close inspection there are some pinpoint brown spot accretions and very minor craquelure visible in some sparsely scattered areas throughout. There are some extremely faint pale drip accretions visible in the lower half of the work. There is a slightly lifted yet stable paint flake visible 31½ inches from the upper edge and 14¼ inches from the right edge. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Unframed.
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Born into a fervently Catholic family, Andy Warhol began his relationship with religion at an early age. Religion continued to play a significant role throughout the artist's life as he attended mass every week, even when his popularity (and subsequently, social calendar) increased. While piety is not the first word one would associate with the artist who socialized with New York's glamorous elite, Warhol and religion do share a common interest: death. This became truer towards the end of Warhol’s career as his subject matter shifted from commercial soup cans and celebrities to ominous weapons and skulls. The relationship between Christianity and Warhol’s paintings extend beyond his morbid work that depicted scenes and instruments of death. He incorporated many religious icons and symbols into his work, most famously his Last Supper paintings, a series of colorful silkscreens that reapproriate da Vinci’s infamous scene.

Warhol began his career making drawings for advertisers, and it is fitting that near the end of his life he returned to the advertising format and style to make this series of works. The concept of commercialization was a major theme throughout Warhol’s canon, and with his elevation of generic ads into fine art he calls into question whether art is just another form of advertisement. In this painting we see a religious slogan written in a cartoonish font that belies the serious message. One could imagine an evangelical protest populated by signs that look exactly like this one. Although Andy was religious, the purpose of the work is not so much spiritual as it is a wry comment on the nature of public relations; in a world where marketing has taken off like never before, even heaven needs an advertisement.