Andy Warhol
Self-Portrait, 1963-1964
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, in four parts, overall: 40 x 32 in. (101.6 x 81.3 cm.)
Estimate: $20,000,000-30,000,000
Christie’s to sell an iconic self-portrait by Warhol On May 11, 2011, Christie’s will auction one of the most important self-portraits by Andy Warhol. Created in 1963-1964, this four-panel masterpiece defined Warhol as the ‘High Priest of Pop’]]>
April 17, 2011. source: Christie’s / theartwolf.com
In recent years, Andy Warhol has been one of the superstars of the art market. Several of his works have sold for astronomical prices, including the ‘Men in Her Life’ sold last year for $63 million at Phillips, the ‘200 One Dollar Bills’ sold for $43.8 million at Sotheby’s in 2009, or the ‘Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)’ sold for a record $71.7 million at Christie’s in 2007. There have been some disappointments though, as the ‘Big Campbell’s Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable)’ which went for “just” $23,8 million last year at Sotheby’s, when some observers (including theartwolf) believed that the painting could easily fetch $50 million.
On May 11, 2011, Christie’s will auction another coveted work by Warhol, a 1963-1964 self-portrait labeled by the auction house as ‘The Birth of the Cool’. In a press note, Christie’s points out that this work “epitomizes Warhol’s desire to be a “machine” and is the perfect portrait of mass media and consumerism”. Certainly, this self-portrait is one of those works of arts that are instantly recognizable even for those who are not very familiar with contemporary art.
The work, which has remained in the hands of the same family since its creation, has been the cover image of the catalogues for major Warhol retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, the Pompidou Center and the Guggenheim Bilbao.
Related content
Andy Warhol’s ‘Men in Her Life’ sells for $63 million (2010)
Warhol’s ‘Big Campbell’s Soup Can with Can Opener’ might sell for $50 million (2010)
Portrait of Liz Taylor by Andy Warhol at auction (2010)
Follow us on:
