Andy Warhol was one of the most influential, innovative and iconic artists of the 20th century. Although his work is instantly recognizable, there are many levels to Warhol’s oeuvre. Few artists prior to Warhol had created paintings that were both so widely recognized and so widely reproduced.
His unique style and technique have led to an explosion in the marketplace for his works over the past decade. This has resulted in a dramatic and sustained increase in value.
Warhol’s Pop Art paintings and prints continued to fetch record prices at auctions around the world in 2008, with 11 works exceeding $10 million each at Christie’s New York alone. In May 2008, a previously unknown white painting by Warhol entitled “Big Electric Chair” (1964) sold for a record $43 million at Sotheby’s New York. The work had last been seen publicly at an exhibition of Warhol’s work at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in 1986 and was purchased by Steven A. Cohen for his private collection.
An Andy Warhol portrait of Elizabeth Taylor recently became the second most expensive painting by the artist ever sold. The 1963 portrait was bought by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $25.8 million (including buyer’s premium). The previous record
Andy Warhol’s art has been described as “wonderfully wobbly,” and it is. Yet once you get past the wobbly part, there is something else going on.
Warhol did not create his art to be wobbly. He created it to be adorable – or, more precisely, to trigger the same emotion in viewers that we feel when we look at kittens or babies. The artist has a higher purpose: to make us happy.
Warhol’s prints are small because he didn’t want them to overwhelm the viewer. He wanted people to be able to handle them, and thus physically connect with them. If they were bigger, they’d be less personal.
The highest value Warhol paintings are apparently still the ones that were never sold – they have the connection with Warhol that comes from ownership, but they haven’t been degraded by being handled by strangers. They have something extra: they’re one of a kind. That may help explain why collectors seem willing to pay so much more for those works than for works that can be bought in multiples.
Collectors who like Warhol’s work say that it “generates energy.” One collector said that he felt almost dizzy after looking at a painting of a banana peel
You can find a Andy Warhol piece in almost every home, office and restaurant even if you don’t know it. That’s because it is hard to recognize an Andy Warhol painting unless you are an art collector.
Pop art is a form of art that uses popular culture imagery and objects as its primary subject. The movement first came about in England during the 1960s and was primarily influenced by Dadaism and surrealism. It became very popular in the United States when Andy Warhol adopted the style.
While Andy Warhol was alive, he produced many pieces of pop art that are now worth millions of dollars. His famous Campbell’s Soup Can is estimated to be worth $20 million dollars (in today’s dollars).
Today, these pieces from his collection have become so valuable, that museums and galleries will often exhibit them for only a few weeks before locking them up in storage to keep thieves away.
For many people, it is hard to understand how the prices of art pieces can grow so much in such a short period of time. Yet, it makes sense if we take a look at the history of fine art and how its value has evolved over time. The list below includes just a few examples of what happened with Andy Warhol’s work since his death in 1987.
The work titled “Small Torn Campbell’s Soup Can (Pepper Pot),” produced between 1962-1964, sold for $3,485,000 at Christie’s New York Auction on May 9th, 2007. In 1980, Andy Warhol made a series of paintings based on Campbell’s soup cans; this specific work was produced from 1962-64. Originally sold for $100 at an art show in Los Angeles and is considered one of the most important works of modern art by Warhol.
This auction was the first time that any Warhol piece had been sold for more than 3 million dollars.
On November 17th, 2010, one of Andy Warhol’s most famous works was sold for $105 million dollars: “Triple Elvis.” The previous owner had bought this painting in 2003 for $81 million dollars; this price increase represents a 25% profit investment in only 7 years. This
Andy Warhol, the American Pop Art icon, is known for his work using serial images and his many famous Self-Portraits. Warhol’s most famous works include Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s Soup Cans. Andy Warhol was born in 1930 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His parents were working-class Czechoslovakian immigrants who owned a restaurant. They hoped that their son would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a commercial artist.
Warhol graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949 and moved to New York City to pursue a career in advertising design. However, he soon became involved with the art world, both as a collector and as an artist. By 1956 he had begun creating his own experimental films using a Bolex camera and later moving on to the 16mm format. In 1962 he began producing his famous paintings of Campbell’s soup cans which were sold at the legendary Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. His first series of silkscreens were sold by Bonwit Teller department store in New York City, who then asked him to create a series of paintings of Marilyn Monroe, after Warhol found her inspiring while reading her biography.
Warhol created more than 300 variations of this work before his death in 1987 at age 58. He also
Most Warhol works, in my opinion, are worth more than most other artworks. But some are worth more than others.
The ones I like best are the early ones that use the old-fashioned kind of silk-screening (that’s what Warhol called them) to make multiple copies of a single image. The one I like best is of Elvis Presley, which I’ve seen in several museums and on the walls of various collectors. It’s not so much just that it’s an image we all recognize as that it’s a perfect image: the right size, with a strong composition and color balance, and above all a killer subject. And no one who has seen it would ever forget it.
Andy Warhol was an American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertising that flourished by the 1960s.
Described as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Warhol’s artwork has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions in America and Europe.
Warhol’s art used many types of media, including hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, sculpture, film, and music. He became a noted figure in the world of fashion, creating record album covers and designing the cover of the first issue of “Interview” magazine in 1969.
Warhol also managed or founded several successful business ventures that exploited the popularity of his artworks. He authored numerous books during his lifetime such as The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties.
He played a major role in making art accessible to a larger audience through his prolific writing and lectures. He managed and produced The Velvet Underground while helping usher in punk rock through his collaboration with its founder Lou Reed.
