The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne, Paintings and Sculpture 1961-1963: Paintings and Sculptures 1961-1963

Description

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is one of the most iconic figures in 20th-century art, an enigmatic man who not only altered the definition of art but also in his wake left a vast and staggeringly complex record of his daily activities. This work is the definitive record of the artist's paintings, sculptures, and drawings: some 15,000 works produced by Warhol between 1948 and 1987. Also included is an array of rarely published source material such as newspaper scraps and movie star publicity stills that inspired Warhol's life and career. "The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne" was initiated in 1977 by Thomas Ammann. The editors Georg Frei and Neil Printz began primary research in 1993 and have been advised throughout the project by the curators and art historians Kynaston McShine and Robert Rosenblum. Experts from the Andy Warhol Foundation examined the vast majority of Warhol's works and began a thorough review of his archive, which at his death consisted of 1500 cardboard boxes, flat files, and trunks filled with source material, memorabilia, correspondence and junk mail. The editors examined works in museums in their conservation facilities and discussed them with conservators, submitted works for review by the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, and interviewed Warhol's assistants and colleagues to assemble a customized database of works unparalleled in Warhol scholarship. All of their findings are documented in this project. Each annotated catalogue entry includes the works' title, date, medium, dimensions, and present owner, followed by a record of inscriptions, provenance, exhibitions, and literature. Related works are linked by general introductory texts that address historical circumstances, shared themes, and studio practices. Supplementary figures to the texts illustrate source materials Warhol appropriated for his works - newspaper articles and advertisements, soup cans, publicity stills - as well as related drawings, works by other artists, and studio and exhibition views. "Volume 1" includes classic and much-prized Warhols such as the "Campbell Soup paintings", images of icons Marilyn, Liz, and Elvis and early self-portraits.

Georg Frei is a curator, art critic, and editor who has been affiliated with Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG in Zurich since 1988. Previously he wrote art, dance, and theatre criticism for several Swiss newspapers and magazines. For the Thomas Ammann gallery he has organized more than a dozen exhibitions and edited the accompanying catalogues on such artists as Picasso, Cy Twombly, Max Beckmann, and Willem de Kooning. For the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, he was the guest curator of the exhibition Andy Warhol series and singles, 2000-2001. Neil Printz is an art historian with a focus on twentieth-century American art. He is currently the editor of the Isamu Noguchi Catalogue Raisonne for the Isamu Noguchi Foundation in New York, and professor of art history at Caldwell College in Caldwell, New Jersey. From 1977 to 1983 he was the director of the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York. Dr. Printz has contributed and edited articles for several journals and museum publications, including The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas; the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn; the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt; and the St. Petersburg Foundation for Culture and Art. He was a research curator at The Menil Collection from 1983 to 1991. Author's/Photographer's Residence: Georg Frei: Zurich, Switzerland; Neil Printz: New York, New York.

"An unmistakable silk-screened cover distinguishes the first volume of the Warhol catalogue raisonne, assembling paintings and sculptures completed between 1961 and 1963. Commenced in 1977 by Thomas Ammann, the ambitious multi-volume project, once completed, will be the definitive resource on the innumerable, controversial works of the Pop star. In 1993 Georg Frei and Neil Printz - the first a critic and curator, the latter an art historian specializing in 20th-century American art - began editing the catalogue in cooperation with Kynaston McShine, Robert Rosenblum, the Andy Warhol Foundation, and the Andy Warhol Authentication Board. In addition to essays and colour reproductions, Volume 1 contains an array of interesting sources used by the artist, including newspaper clippings and publicity shots of movie stars."-Tema Celeste "If the Warhol catalogue raisonne stands to offer us new information about Warhol's project, we cannot ignore the fact that at the same time it functions as a tool of authentication for the market...In the end, even if the authenticating function of the catalogue raisonne comes up against the thornier issues by the artist's unique approach to authorship, we are left wih productive insights into Warhol's broader project."-Art Journal "It's gratuitous, gigantic, gaudy-and expensive. Warhol would have loved it."-Details "One does not ordinarily read catalogue raisonnes for fun, but the volume on Andy Warhol that deals with his paintings and sculptures from 1961 to 1963 takes you as close as I think you could get to the way his mind worked in that extraordinarily creative period. The mystery of Warhol's mind is undissolved, but how that mind worked on a day-to-day basis is thrilling to observe."-Arthur C Danto, Emeritus Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University, The Art Newspaper