Andy Warhol (AMERICAN, 1928-1987)
Kiku (Blue, White, Red)
Unique color screen print on 2-ply Lenox Museum board
1983
Dimensions: 40 x 32 inches (101 1/2 x 81 1/4 cm)
Full margins
Framed
From Kiku series
Feldman & Schellmann II. 307-309
In overall excellent condition
With the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Andy Warhol Estate ink stamp, verso
Initialed and inscribed "PT 120C UT.015" in ink, verso by Tim Hunt
Provenance: The Andy Warhol Estate, New York; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzberg; Max Lang, New York
Contact department for full condition report

This unique, 1983 screenprint on 2-ply board, is an unpublished trial proof from the period when the artist was working on the “Kiku” portfolio of three prints for the Gendai Hanga Center in Tokyo, Japan (see Feldman & Schellmann II. 307-309). Kiku means chrysanthemum in Japanese and it is considered the royal flower.

This atmospherically printed silkscreen, with its dramatic Chiaroscuro is entirely different from any images in the portfolio and is much more painterly.

The print is stamped on the verso by both the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Andy Warhol Estate, and is initialed and inscribed in ballpoint pen PT 120C UT.015 by Tim Hunt from the Warhol Foundation. The print is also accompanied with the original certificate from the Andy Warhol Foundation. It is extremely rare to have the original authentication letter as these are often lost and can never be replaced.

The print, in excellent condition, measures 40 x 32 inches and is framed.

Andy Warhol (AMERICAN, 1928-1987)

Andy Warhol, founder and leading figure of the American Pop Art, was born in 1928 as a son of a Carpatho-Rusyn family in Pennsylvania. He began his career as an artist by creating advertising graphics. Already in 1956, he presented his graphic works at the Museum of Modern Art. In the early 1960s Warhol began experimenting with different techniques and started focusing on typically American objects of the consumer society, as for example Campbell’s soup cans or Coca Cola bottles. In 1962 Warhol started with his series of portraits of famous stars, such as Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley, who were then at the height of their career. His renowned studio ‘The Factory’ was a meeting point for internationally successful artists, actors and musicians. As early as the 1970s galleries started exhibiting Warhol’s work, which is now part of some of the most famous collections, such as the Modern Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London and the d’Art Moderne in Paris.