Peter Harrington Presents: Andy Warhol.

Peter Harrington Presents: Andy Warhol.

From September 1st, Peter Harrington will be exhibiting an extensive collection of rare, signed and limited edition prints, books and proofs by legendary pop artist Andy Warhol.

 

Andy Warhol  remains one of the best known artists of the 20th century. For the month of September, Peter Harrington’s Dover Street shop will be showing an assortment of limited edition & signed prints, as well as rare books and proofs. Available for viewing during shop opening hours (Monday-Saturday, 10am-6pm), the collection is notable in showcasing the sheer breadth of variety in the artist’s work.

 

Dover Street Window

Dover Street Window

 

Warhol began his career in the 1950s as a commercial illustrator, and the whimsical style he developed in those years is shown in some of his hand-finished, limited-edition publications, including 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy (1954) and In the Bottom of My Garden (1956). These prints are particularly rare due to the bulk of his early work remaining in the pages of American magazines advertising commercial products. 

In the 1960s, Warhol applied his knowledge of American commercialism and the power of the brand to become a leader of the Pop Art movement, he and his Factory full of assistants endlessly replicating iconic images – the Campbell’s Soup cans and Marilyn Monroe being the most famous examples – using mechanical screen-printing techniques.

His compulsive reuse of these signature images in different contexts means that, while few of us can afford to compete with the likes of Hugh Grant for such works as Warhol’s 1963 screen print of Elizabeth Taylor – “Liz (Colored Liz)” sold at auction in 2007 for $23.7 million (£11.85 million) = the Gallery at Peter Harrington is able to offer many more affordable examples of Warhol’s well-known images, including a brown paper bag printed with Campbell’s Soup Can issued for the Warhol exhibition at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art in 1996 (pictured above), as well as his later printed books.

Sam, Portrait, 1954

Sam. (Orange cat with yellow eyes, portrait.)

   

 

 

25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy, 1954.

The collection of plates we have on sale are editions of 190, all-offset lithographs on wove paper, handwash water colour.

Published early in Warhol’s career 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy was self-published by Warhol as a private artist’s book. This series of ink wash cats number only 17, rather than the implied 25 of the title, though they are all named Sam, except the last, titled “One Blue Pussy”.

Warhol and his mother owned some 26 cats – again, all named Sam apart from one: Hester. While it’s not clear if the subject of the prints are the same cat, each one certainly has its own twist, predominantly shown through the use of the bright, psychedelic colouring that would define Warhol’s later work.

This production method – notable for Warhol having his friends colour the work at  ‘colouring parties’ – was to continue into his most famous period at ‘The Factory’, the artists New York studio in the 1960’s.

 

In the Bottom of My Garden.

Prints from the In the Bottom of My Garden series on display at Dover Street are offset lithographs on wove paper, hand-coloured by Warhol and friends with Dr. Martin’s aniline watercolour dye. Each image shows a playful wit in design, with the cherubs exuding a cutesy innocence and a sexual playfulness simultaneously. All are coloured in fluorescent pinks, oranges and greens.

 

Two Cherubs, 1956

In the Bottom of my Garden: Two Playful Cherubs. 1956

 

 

 

 Endangered Species

The Endangered Species portfolio was commissioned by activist-philanthropists Ronald and Frayda Feldman in the early 80’s and totals ten designs. Using his characteristic and celebrated bright colour schemes and block silhouettes, Warhol embraced the project and created these iconic images. All prints are presented in a white wooden frame with UV preventative perspex. All are signed editions of 150.

Bald Eagle: after a photograph by George Galicz. Screenprint on Lenox Museum board, San Francisco

Silverspot: after a photograph by Larry Orsak. Screenprint on Lenox Museum board,

Black Rhinoceros: after a photograph by Mohammed Amin. Copyright stamp in red to verso.

 

Black Rhinoceros by Mohammed Amin

Black Rhinoceros.

 

 

Cow

In 1966 Warhol exhibited Cow Wallpaper and Silver Clouds at the Leo Castelli Gallery. The Cows were Day-Glo colored, and the Clouds were floating silvery pillow shaped balloons. This iconic image by Warhol is one of his most sought after images. The image was reproduced in various official editions until the mid 1980’s.

 

Details of Renaissance Paintings. (Hors de Commerce)
This image, a screenprint on Cold Pressed paper is based on Paolo Uccello’s St George and the Dragon (1490) that resides on the National Gallery, London. The print is one of 4 Hors de Commerce impressions aside from the edition of 50. It shows the length of the dragon’s wing, and the head and shoulders of the female spectator from the left side of the original painting. Warhol has here replaced the depth and realism of the original with his trademark block colours and linework.
Signed and numbered in pencil lower left by Warhol. Stamped on the verso “Andy Warhol 1984, Editions Schellmann & Klüser, Munich/New York”. In excellent condition, it is presented in a silver frame with perspex.

 

Campbell’s Tomato Soup Can on Shopping Bag

Published for the Warhol exhibition at the Institude of Contemporary Art in Boston, this piece is from an unknown edition. A screenprint on a brown heavy paper shopping bag, the renowned Campbell’s Soup Can lives on in this seminal piece. It is presented here in a black wooden box frame.

 

 

Warhol's Soup Can on Shopping Bag, 1966.

Warhol’s Soup Can on Shopping Bag, 1966.

 

 

Flowers

We have three prints titled ‘Flowers’, each one of which is unique. Two of the prints, from the Peter M Brandt, Castelli Graphics and Multiples Inc., 1974 exhibition are hand coloured with Dr Martin’s aniline watercolour dye on Arches or J. Green paper. Presented individually float mounted in a black laquer frame under UV glass, both are signed and dated by the artist.
The third is a decade earlier, published to coincide with Warhol’s exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1964, and is an offset lithograpgh signed and dated by the artist. It is presented at Peter Harrington in a white gold leaf frame.

 

Lincoln Center Ticket

Published to commemorate the Fifth New York Film Festival, held at the Lincoln Center in New York. Presented here in the original metal frame supplied by Amos Vogel when he received the print in 1968, Warhol’s signature can be seen in the window to the back of the frame.
From the estate of Amos Vogel, champion of independent and international cinema (co-founder of the New York Film Festival, the groundbreaking society Cinema 16, and author of Film As a Subversive Art), the piece was gifted to him at the annual festival by Warhol himself.

 

Original proofs for the artwork on Love You Live.

Original proofs for the artwork on Love You Live.

 

The Rolling Stones

Possibly unique proofs for the artwork on the Love You Live, commissioned from Warhol for the album. It is almost certain that these two colour-printed proofs, purchased from the late Art Collins, President of Rolling Stones Records, are the only surviving set showing the design as intended by Warhol. The hand drawn title and track listing issued on the printed album were strongly opposed by Warhol, who later wrote “I told Jerry I thought Mick had ruined the Love You Live cover I did for them by writing all over it – it’s his handwriting, and he wrote so big. The kids who buy the album would have had a good piece of art if he hadn’t spoiled it” (The Andy Warhol Diaries, 5 July 1978). Warhol was thus loth to sign copies of the album, unusual for a man so notorious for signing more or less anything put in front of him.

 

Reigning Queens Portfolio

Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland, signed and dated by Warhol in 1985, is one of four images created of the only four female reigning monarchs in the world at that time. The other portraits include Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Based on official or media-sourced photographs, Warhol has incorporated blocks of colour that, although screen printed, appear collaged. He has also combined printed elements derived from drawings, which emphasise details such as jewellery