Andy Warhol

Luhring Augustine & Hodes Gallery, New York

Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above in 1985)

Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art Part II, 9 May 1996, Lot 206

Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris

Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zurich

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2006

Paris, Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Andy Warhol, 1996-97

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the tonality in the original is more contrasting. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Very close inspection reveals a tiny loss to the top right hand corner tip and a very light rub mark to the lower right corner tip. Further inspection reveals a few minute fly spots in places. No restoration is apparent when examined 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."

Articulated in screens of ethereal pearlescent white on a rich ivory ground, Two White Mona Lisas from 1980 is paradigmatic of Andy Warhol’s revered late series in which he revisited and reprised the subjects that propelled him to prominence in the early 1960s. First appropriated by Warhol in 1963, Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Renaissance masterpiece here resurfaces in the artist’s oeuvre seventeen years later. Once again La Gioconda is re-presented in serial grid-formation; however Warhol’s monochrome tonal values are reversed. Choosing a delicate minimalist colour palette, Warhol at once invites associations with innovations in contemporary painting (such as the ascendancy of Robert Ryman and his aesthetic association with white pigment) whilst instilling a melancholic dialogue inexorably connected to a rumination on mortality.

Eighteen years earlier in 1962, Warhol encountered the original Mona Lisa first-hand when the painting travelled to New York for exhibition. Universally considered the most famous (and thereby expensive) work of art in existence, the occasion of the Mona Lisa’s first official tour outside of Europe roused unprecedented attention from the press. Her arrival in America was a major media event, and the exhibition tour to Washington's National Gallery of Art and New York's Metropolitan Museum was covered by wave upon wave of photographers, both amateur and professional, each hoping to capture the enigmatic essence of her fame. The press devoted vast column inches in attempting to analyse her beauty and her celebrity as the world's most famous work of art. Her arrival to the United States was unveiled by President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, as a way of reinforcing Franco-American relations, and, indeed, many of the photographers juxtaposed the radiant smile of Jackie with the 'enigmatic' one of Mona Lisa. She was a media star in the truest sense of the word and by the end of her trip over 1.6 million people had seen her. Amongst them was a young Warhol, on the cusp of wider creative recognition and embarking on a career which would see him become one of the most famous and celebrated artists of the Twentieth Century.

Warhol was immediately captivated by the Mona Lisa and incorporated the legendary image within his own oeuvre for the first time shortly after its iconic exhibition in 1962. The small corpus of seven preliminary paintings executed between January and February of 1963 denotes Warhol’s first serialisation of an art historical work; moreover, the Mona Lisa was to remain the only painting appropriated in this way until the 1980s. Though unimpeachable as a landmark of art history, it was her status as a celebrity and priceless commodity that undoubtedly caught Warhol’s artistic attention. Possessing an unrivalled degree of iconicity and instantly recognisable stardom, Leonardo’s Mona Lisa seems tailor-made for Warholian veneration.

The reiteration and repetition of iconic personalities and consumer products had long been the very cornerstone of Warhol’s practice – with the renewed conceptual vigour of the Reversals and Retrospectives, this artistic project reached its apotheosis. Roberto Marrone contended that, “Warhol’s ‘appropriating’ of his own imagery in the Reversal and Retrospective series ran parallel to the then current aesthetic of irreverent undermining of the traditional canons of art history and its hierarchical divisions between so-called ‘high’ and ‘low’ art” (Roberto Marrone in: Exh. Cat., Zurich, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Andy Warhol: Big Retrospective Painting, 2009, p. 32). Two White Mona Lisas carries this concept of ‘appropriation’ a step further still. Herein, Warhol’s decision to employ the Mona Lisa does not purely allude to Leonardo da Vinci’s sixteenth-century masterpiece, but also to Marcel Duchamp’s acerbic L.H.O.O.Q. from 1919, in which the delicate and enigmatic face of La Gioconda is jokingly defaced by a moustache. Duchamp’s doctored version posed questions regarding conventional assumptions of gender whilst simultaneously imbuing the Mona Lisa – an unassailable and iconic beacon of chastity – with sexual provocation: Duchamp’s choice of title makes reference to a sexual pun in French. With Two White Mona Lisas and its greater series as a whole, Warhol explicitly exposes the Duchampian nature of his project: not only does he view Leonardo’s painting as a readymade to be appropriated and manipulated for a new artistic dialogue, he also singles out his own work as fair game. Taking his cue from a long tradition of artists who have adapted, varied, and transformed the art of their predecessors, Warhol, in an act of post-modernist brilliance, expropriated material from his own infamous repertoire of images, transforming his classic Pop iconography with surprising painterly techniques and compositional reconfigurations.

Narrating a moment of repose and personal reflection, Warhol stood at the end of a decade creatively dominated by his celebrity portrait practice: flamboyant images that came to encapsulate an era. Prophetically heralding the final decade of Warhol’s life, the late works possess an undercurrent of poignancy and gravitas; the psychological shadows and physical effects of Valerie Solanas’ attempted assassination in 1968 linger on in these late works. As prevalent in Two White Mona Lisas, the ghostly colour palette and delicate impression of the screening appears almost miraculous, possessing a spiritual quality that runs counter to the stark black and white contrast of his 1960s Mona Lisa paintings.