Sale: 534 / Contemporary Art Day Sale, Dec. 09. 2022 in Munich Lot 119

 

119
Andy Warhol
Goethe, 1982.
Silkscreen in colors
Estimate:
€ 50,000 / $ 54,000
Sold:
€ 168,750 / $ 182,250

(incl. surcharge)
Goethe. 1982.
Silkscreen in colors.
Feldmann/Schellmann/Defendi II.271. Signed and numbered. From an edition of 100 copies. On Lenox Museums cardboard. 96.5 x 96.5 cm (37.9 x 37.9 in).
Printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York (with the blindstamp). Published by Editionen Schellmann & Klüser, Munich/New York, in cooperation with Denise René/Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf (verso wih the copyright stamp). [AR].
• This version of the famous "Goethe" suite has the strongest colors.
• An icon of world literature portrayed by Andy Warhol.
• Tischbein's painting as a pop art template, famous works by Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo Da Vinci followed
.

PROVENANCE: Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf.
Private collection Hesse.

Eyes tired, wearing a backpack and jacket that doesn't fit well - apparently just one of numerous tourists who have their picture taken in front of Tischbein's famous painting "Goethe in the Roman Campagna". In 1981, the photographer Barbara Klemm captured Andy Warhol in front of the work that had served as inspiration for his portrait of the German poet the year before. A portrait commission from the publisher Siegfried Unseld brought the pop artist to Frankfurt am Main in 1980. Together with his client, Warhol visits the Städel Museum, where Unseld suggested creating a variation of Tischbein's painting. Based on a photograph, the "court painter of the 70s", as art historian Robert Rosenblum calls Warhol, transforms (cf. Robert Rosenblum, Andy Warhol: Der Hofmaler der Siebziger, in: ex. cat. Andy Warhol, Porträts, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 1993; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London 1994, Munich 1993), the portrait of Goethe into a trendy pop-art portrait. He adds graphic elements to his screen printing process, which expand the motif by a painterly surface structure and add the unmistakable artistic signature. The concentration on Geothe’s over-dimensioned is in line with Tischbein's original intention of paying particular attention to the face. At the time, he wrote in a letter to Johann Caspar Lavater: "I want to draw his face very precisely and truthfully. You can't see a happier and more expressive head [sic]" (quoted from: Jonas Fränkel (ed.), Goethes Briefe an Charlotte von Stein, vol. 5: comment/register, Berlin 1962, pp. 199f.). [CE/MH]



119
Andy Warhol
Goethe, 1982.
Silkscreen in colors
Estimate:
€ 50,000 / $ 54,000
Sold:
€ 168,750 / $ 182,250

(incl. surcharge)