Andy Warhol – Self Portrait (1963-64).
A work from Andy Warhol’s first series of self-portraits comes up at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening auction in London on June 28. In the early 1960s the Pop art pioneer achieved renown for his candid portrayals of luminaries including Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor.
Self-Portrait, 1963-64, represents the moment that Warhol stepped out from behind the camera and into the glare of its flashbulb – and the moment that Warhol the icon was born. This was a turning point that reverberated throughout his oeuvre. Created when Warhol was 35 years old, Self-Portrait will be offered at auction for the first time, 30 years after the artist’s death in 1987.
Self-Portrait was created using images taken in a New York photo-booth. The use of such unconventional source material was, at this time, fiercely innovative, and added to the aura of technical invention that already surrounded this artist, who had pioneered the use of silkscreen printing in art only a couple of years previously. The work is estimated at £5-7 million.