Sold for: $46,250

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, New York
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Frayda Feldman and Jörg Schellman, editors, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1962 - 1987, 4th edition, 2003, page 60 catalogue #II.7
Jerry Saltz, Andy’s Portraits of Liz, New York magazine, reproduced on Artnet at
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/andy-warhols-portraits-of-liz3-24-11.asp, accessed September 14, 2023

Liz Taylor was one of the great icons of the film world, and was a friend of Andy Warhol’s in the 1970s and 1980s. Fascinated with the cult of celebrity, Warhol moved in their circles, and became one himself. Warhol was intrigued with the power of the feminine, and Taylor, with her charisma, extravagance and resilience, was a fascinating embodiment of it. Jerry Saltz wrote: “Andy loved women and the power of the feminine, and the women he loved most and best were Marilyn, Jackie and Liz. Many of the paintings made in his heyday, between 1962 and 1965, were of them. Like the women themselves, the pictures of Liz exude a primitive hit of graphic power, stunning color, seething glamour, repressed sexuality and flawed beauty.”

As he had done with Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol produced both paintings and prints of Taylor - in 1963, he painted a series of 13 works of her, and in all, made over 50 portraits, ranging in image from her child-actress appearance in National Velvet to her screen goddess incarnation in Cleopatra, and from his own photographs. This powerful print, with its saturated colour contrasts dominated by the red background and her ruby lips, embodies Tayor’s sensuality and strength.

The catalogue raisonné states that this print is from an edition of approximately 300, signed and dated in ball-point pen.

Printer: Total Color, New York

Publisher: Leo Castelli Gallery, New York

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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