Warhol happy snaps go on sale
Rare one-off prints will cost nearly R1m each
RARELY seen photographs of celebrities captured in informal moments by the artist Andy Warhol — as well as pictures of more mundane subjects — are to be sold in an online auction.
The American pop artist, who gained notoriety for turning soup cans into art in 1962, used photography as his medium towards the end of his career and had a tendency to snap people in spontaneous moments.
Many of his subjects were showbiz friends who frequented the same nightclubs he did, or visited his luxurious beach house or his New York studio, the Factory.
They included the likes of John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross and Debbie Harry.
He also turned his artistic eye to capturing domestic items: humdrum objects such as a roomservice tray and a row of urinals.
The previously unseen work includes self-portraits; in one of them he is wearing a green jersey and eating a bowl of cornflakes.
Warhol, who died in 1987, only ever made one print of each of his photos and so they are unique works of art.
He gave many of them to his long-time diarist, Pat Hackett, and they now make up the exhibition of 150 of his photos.
They will go on general sale at the online art and antique dealers 1stdibs.com and will cost up to £55 000 (about R880 000) for a print.
“Andy had an artist’s eye and everything that he did he applied it to,” said Hackett.
“He would see odd things that he would photograph. His skill was deciding what you want to photograph.
“Photography was . . . the next phase of his art career and was something that Andy was progressing with much more.
“I am selling these photos now because Andy died before he was able to present them to a wider public. They haven’t been given the attention that Andy would have expected.
“When his life was cut short, that awareness of his photography was cut short, too,” said Hackett.
The silver-gelatin prints were taken on 35mm negatives films from 1976 to 1987.
I am selling these photos now because Andy died before he was able to present them to a wider public
Some of the prints being sold are owned by Warhol collector Jim Hedges.
“Warhol obsessively photographed different subjects,” said Hedges. “That was part of the genius of Andy Warhol.
“He conveyed in his art the highest of the highs, like showbusiness people, and the lowest of the lows, like a urinal.”
The exhibition will open in New York on September 3, and the online sale will begin the same day and last for a month. — © The