A rare signed version of one of the last self-portraits made by Andy Warhol will be sold live online on Thursday 27th October by fine art and design auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull, in partnership with poster specialists Tomkinson Churcher.
The poster, which has a starting price of between £1,500 and £2,000, is based on a front cover commission by the Observer Magazine in June 1986. It was created by Warhol ahead of the first and only solo exhibition of his work dedicated to self-portraiture.
The celebrated exhibition, Warhol on Warhol’ (self portraits), took place at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London’s Mayfair during the summer of 1986. Just seven months later, the artist died at the age of 58 of complications after surgery.
The Observer Magazine front cover bearing Warhol’s image and signature depicts the pop artist wearing one of his famous silver “Fright Wigs” and contains elements of zingy pink and yellow collaged strips across a black and white photograph.
Warhol attended the glamorous opening of the exhibition at the Anthony d’Offay gallery and was asked by the current owner, an employee of the gallery, if he would sign the self-portrait poster and one of his iconic Marilyn images.
The self-portrait being offered for auction carries Warhol’s signature in black marker pen and reads, “Serena, Andy Warhol, 1986“.
The poster, part of Lyon & Turnbull’s Travel & Vintage posters auction, will be offered alongside a signed poster depicting Marilyn, another Warhol classic. The Marilyn poster was created in early 1971 to advertise an exhibition of Warhol’s work at The Tate Gallery in London.
The evening during which Warhol signed the two posters was documented in Warhol’s diaries:
“Sunday 6 July 1986. Got the Concorde, was met by Anthony d’Offay, went to the Ritz hotel [porters $20], had a really big double room, like three rooms. Cabbed to Mr Chow’s [$7.50] all these great people, Mick and Jerry, all the English swells…”
Sophie Churcher from Tomkinson Churcher, Specialist Consultants to Lyon & Turnbull, said of the Warhols being offered for auction:
“The two Warhol posters on offer belong to a key point in the seminal pop artist’s life. The current owner was an employee of Anthony d’Offay, and asked him to sign two posters for her during the opening night of the show and he happily obliged.
“The opening was packed and was followed by a riotous dinner at London’s Café Royal which the current owner attended. The opening and the d’Offay show were to be the last great celebratory moments of Warhol’s life before his death the following year.
“The second Warhol work to be offered was also signed during the exhibition and features his iconic Marilyn image. The original of the Marilyn image sold at Christie’s in May this year for $195 million – the most the most expensive 20th century work of art to sell at auction.”
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