Ronnie Cutrone
(American, 1948-2013)

"Hello Sunshine", 1988

watercolor and mixed media
signed and dated lower left and right, respectively; together with a copy of the letter of authenticity issued at the time of purchase by C & L Fine Arts, New York.
Glazed and float-mounted in frame.
41" x 29-1/2", framed 55-1/2" x 43-1/2"

Provenance: C & L Fine Arts, Inc., New York, New York, 2000.

Notes: Ronnie Cutrone, a figurehead of the Pop and Post-Pop art scenes, was Andy Warhol's assistant at the Factory atop the Decker Building from 1972-1980, and worked closely with Roy Lichtenstein, combining stylistic elements of both. Cutrone's large-scale paintings of American cartoon icons, like Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat, and Woody Woodpecker (featured in this lot) further reinvented kitsch and popular media in terms of fine art. Executed in fluorescent monochromatic colors with the finesse of mass-produced silkscreen and prints, Cutrone's works are the reverse of tromp-l'oeil; they use fine art media (watercolor, pastel, crayon - on high-quality paper) to celebrate, rather than hide, the artifice of their subjects. "Everything is cartoon for me", Cutrone is noted for saying, even "ancient manuscripts…[they] are taken very seriously, but they are also cartoons."
Cutrone's works are exhibited and conserved in numerous galleries and museums worldwide, including the Whitney Museum; the MOMA (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles) and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam).

In overall very good condition. There are two very small spots of soiling/accretions to the right side of sunshine's face and to its mouth. Each of the four corners have pinpricks in them and the lower right corner has some light creasing. Colors retain excellent clarity.