16
ANDY WARHOL
1928–1987
Mao Portfolio (set of 10), 1972 the complete set of ten screenprints in colours, on Beckett High White paper each: 91.4 × 91.4 cm (36 × 36 in.) Each signed in ball-point pen and stamp numbered on the reverse. This work is number one from the edition of 250 plus 50 artist’s proofs and is co-published by Castelli Graphics and Multiples, Inc., New York.
Estimate £500,000 –700,000 $794,000 –1,110,000 €632,000 – 885,000
‡
PROVENANCE Alan Brown Gallery, Hartsdale, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner EXHIBITED Warhol in Colorado, Myhren Gallery, University of Denver, 2011 (another example exhibited) LITERATURE Frayda Feldman and Jörg Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962–1987, New York, 2003, pp. 82–83
1972 marked the year President Richard Nixon travelled to China for the state visit to meet Chairman Mao Zedong with the goal of improving relations between the two countries. This event was widely covered by the media, making the portrait of Mao a potent image of political and cultural power. Having a keen eye for celebrity and popular imagery, Andy Warhol completed a series of ten colour screenprints that were based on Mao’s portrait. The optical effects of colour, the marks of the brush and the gestural drawings around the face used in this series manifest the new direction of Warhol’s style turning away from the mechanical-looking modality of his earlier screenprints.
“I don’t think art should be only for the select few, I think it should be for the mass of American people and they usually accept art anyway … I’m not the High Priest of Pop Art … I’m just one of the workers in it.” ANDY WARHOL
CTA_UK_Oct12_Eve_Lots_8-71.indd 64
20/09/12 12.57