ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987) ORIGINAL TORSOS ART EXHIBITION POSTER, 46IN X 66IN (117cm x 168cm)

Inventory #: 25-1089 - $1,000.00

This is a vintage Andy Warhol exhibition poster for his Torsos series, produced for a 1977 exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris, organized by the Ace Gallery. This was one of Warhol’s few major European shows during that decade, arranged through Ace Gallery, a Los Angeles–based gallery known for exhibiting American Pop artists internationally. This poster was produced in 1977 in France by Serigraphie Moderne Industrielle (SMI), a reputable French printer that produced many official exhibition posters for museums and galleries in the 1970s and 1980s. The “smi-paris, Printed in France”, which is printed in the lower right corner means that this poster is an authorized original. There is a Printworks Gallery label on the verso. This label (Long Beach, California) on the back suggests it was sold or framed there in the late 1970s or early 1980s. That gallery was known for limited-edition art posters and custom framing, indicating it was likely purchased and framed soon after the exhibition. Warhol’s Torsos series came after his Sex Parts series and was part of his ongoing exploration of the human body and identity through photography and screen printing. These works were controversial at the time for their frank eroticism, but are now regarded as important late-period Warhols reflecting his interest in the body as both subject and object. It is framed under acrylic and with frame it measures 46 inches x 66 inches. This piece was acquired from a Metro Washington DC estate. DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR FREE OR FLAT RATE SHIPPING UNLESS PREVIOUSLY AGREED UPON IN WRITING. CALL OR EMAIL PRIOR TO AUCTION FOR A QUOTE.

An American painter, graphic artist, film maker, Andy Warhol settled in New York in 1949, and in the 1950's was a successful commercial artist (his shoe advertisements won a medal in 1957). In 1962, he achieved sudden notoriety with exhibited stenciled pictures of Campbell's Soup Cans and Coca-Cola bottles. Warhol was soon the most controversial figure in American Pop art and a brilliant self-promoter. By 1959, he had achieved such success as a graphic illustrator that Warhol ambitiously wanted to move into fine art and conquer it as well. He, perhaps predestined to gain the kind of recognition and respect of a serious fine artist, said: "I want to be Matisse!" The silkscreen process that he favored allowed infinite replication.  He was opposed to the concept of a work of art as a piece of craftsmanship, handmade for the collector and expressing the personality of the artist.  Warhol wanted everybody to think alike and to be a "machine".  In keeping with this outlook, he used clippings of dehumanizing illustrations from the mass media, turned out his work like a manufacturer, and called his studio "The Factory". Warhol's work is in permanent museum collections around the world. The Warhol Museum was opened in Pittsburgh in 1994 under the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh endowment. Warhol's 'fifteen minutes of fame' has long continued after his death. In 2002, his art was even further appreciated in the traveling exhibition "Andy Warhol: Retrospective" which was in the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; The Tate Museum, London; and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, CA. The official Catalogue Raisonnae compiling all known Andy Warhol paintings is being issued in 12 parts with the first edition completed and distributed in 2002. In August 2003, The United States Postal Service honored the artist by unveiling a first-class Warhol Self-Portrait stamp. In 2008 Warhol surpassed Picasso as having the most sales of an artist's works internationally.