Andy Warhol’s art-school works to be sold, including what could be his first-ever self-portrait
The godfather of 20th-century Pop art, Andy Warhol, left a dent distinctly larger than any of his peers of the past century. This was achieved through his insatiable thirst for creative exploration. On top of his iconic Campbell’s Soup and Marilyn Munroe prints, he was also responsible for seminal work in film, music and journalism.
Long before Warhol pioneered the 1960s Pop art movement, he was just another art student known as Andrew Warhola at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. On November 15th, Phillips New York is putting two extremely rare works completed by Warhol when he was just 20 years old in 1948, a year before he graduated.
Believed to be Warhol’s earliest self-portrait, humorously titled Nosepicker I: Why Pick on Me (The Lord Gave Me My Face But I Can Pick My Own Nose), shows the artist sticking a finger up one nostril.
The painting, which was rejected from the annual Associated Artists of Pittsburgh exhibition for being “offensive”, displays Warhol’s non-conformist attitude toward art; while his peers may have been drawing fruit bowls, Warhol was picking his nose. Foreshadowing his novel schemes and unique concepts at such an early stage, this piece is estimated to draw $250,000 to $450,000 at auction.
Another work, completed as an assignment for Warhol’s major in the field of pictorial design, titled Living Room ($300,000-$500,000), is a defined painting made in response to the exercise of producing an imaginary living space that tells the story of its inhabitants.
Warhol based the image on his parents’ living room, merging reality with invented features. The piece has consequently been linked to the identity fabrication that would later see the artist reinvent himself as Andy Warhol.
The two artworks, which will be displayed at the 20th century and contemporary art evening sale at Phillips, previously belonged to the Warhola Family Collection, which has recently been looking to sell some of the artist’s early pieces.
“They have given my siblings and me a great deal of joy over the decades,” said Warhol’s nephew James Warhola about the two paintings in a statement. “Having been exhibited all over the world—from Pittsburgh to Paris—it’s been wonderful to see how they resonate with people.”
“They convey [Warhol’s] aspirations as a young art student wanting to be a fine artist,” he continued. “I always say, ‘before there was a soup can, there was the Nosepicker.’”
Earlier this year, one of Andy Warhol’s famed Marilyn Munroe prints sold for $195M at auction. See the news bulletin below.
