Andy Warhol
Diamond Dust Shoes (Black and White)
1980

About the Item

"Diamond Dust Shoes (Black and White)" is a screen print by American pop artist Andy Warhol. It is signed and editioned verso, " 18/60 Andy Warhol" Stamped verso, "© Andy Warhol 1980". Andy Warhol — who famously said that, “In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes” — was known for his portraits of influential and powerful celebrities, business people, and socialites. He was obsessed with wealth and fame. Warhol was a commercial illustrator before he found fame. For him, success in business was also art. He was a visionary who predicted a consumer society. As he assembled a motley cast of studio assistants and “Superstar” actors at his Factory studio in New York, Warhol himself became a pop culture icon — and eventually one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Warhol began making silkscreen paintings in 1962, because the process was faster and felt more like an assembly line than the traditional approach. He removed himself as much as he could from the process, leaving “the production” of his ideas to others who could reproduce images many times, with only slight differences. To create these works, Warhol would select photographs from newspapers and magazines, send them to a printer to be enlarged on silk screens, and then direct Factory assistants to lay the screens over canvases and apply one or two colors with a squeegee. Color was significant in his portraits, and his style became as identifiable as the personalities in the pictures. Warhol’s commentary on consumer and celebrity culture made him a controversial figure — both celebrated and panned by critics, collectors, curators and, eventually, the general public. Today, Warhol’s paintings are mostly held by institutions, which continually feature him in solo and group exhibitions, as well as in installations of their permanent collections. The ongoing fascination with his work and legacy contributes to his high market value and reinforces the icon status he had always hoped to gain. Provenance: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts Inc., New York Private Collection Literature: Warhol, A., Feldman, F., Defendi, C., & Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (2003) Andy Warhol prints: A catalogue raisonne : 1962-1987. New York: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers in association with Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. p. 120-121

Creator:
Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987, American)
Creation Year:
1980
Dimensions:
Height: 40 in (101.6 cm)Width: 59.5 in (151.13 cm)
Medium:
Screen
Movement & Style:
Pop Art
Period:
1980-1989
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Palm Desert, CA
Reference Number:
Seller: 392391stDibs: LU9310477642
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Shop All Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

The name of American artist Andy Warhol is all but synonymous with Pop art, the movement he helped shape in the 1960s. He was phenomenally prolific, and the archive of original photography, prints, drawings, paintings and other art that he left behind is beyond vast.

Andy Warhol is known for his clever appropriation of motifs and images from popular advertising and commercials, which he integrated into graphic, vibrant works that utilized mass-production technologies such as printmaking, photography and silkscreening. Later in his career, Warhol expanded his oeuvre to include other forms of media, founding Interview magazine and producing fashion shoots and films on-site at the Factory, his world-famous studio in New York.

Born and educated in in Pittsburgh, Warhol moved to New York City in 1949 and built a successful career as a commercial illustrator. Although he made whimsical drawings as a hobby during these years, his career as a fine artist began in the mid-1950s with ink-blot drawings and hand-drawn silkscreens. The 1955 lithograph You Can Lead a Shoe to Water illustrates how he incorporated in his artwork advertising styles and techniques, in this case shoe commercials.

As a child, Warhol was often sick and spent much of his time in bed, where he would make sketches and put together collections of movie-star photographs. He described this period as formative in terms of his skills and interests. Indeed, Warhol remained obsessed with celebrities throughout his career, often producing series devoted to a famous face or an object from the popular culture, such as Chairman Mao or Campbell’s tomato soup. The 1967 silkscreen Marilyn 25 embodies his love of bright color and famous subjects.

Warhol was a prominent cultural figure in New York during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. The Factory was a gathering place for the era’s celebrities, writers, drag queens and fellow artists, and collaboration was common. To this day, Warhol remains one of the most important artists of the 20th century and continues to exert influence on contemporary creators.

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