Mao

Details

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Mao
signed, initialed and dated twice 'Andy Warhol 1973 AW 73' (on the reverse); stamped with the Estate of Andy Warhol and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts stamps and numbered '43.002' (on the reverse)
graphite on paper
40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm.)
Drawn in 1973.

Provenance

The Estate of Andy Warhol and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York
Stellan Holm, Inc., New York
Private collection, New York
Gagosian Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibited

New York, Gagosian Gallery, Andy Warhol: Drawings and Related Works, 1951-1986, February-March 2003, pp. 114 and 150 (illustrated in color).

Lot Essay

"There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause; they are, as Lenin said, cogs and wheels in the whole revolutionary machine."

Chairman Mao

"I think every painting should be the same size and the same color so they're all interchangeable and nobody thinks they have a better painting or a worse painting. And if the one 'Master Painting' is good, they're all good. Besides, even when the subject is different, people always paint the same painting."

Andy Warhol

This drawing was used as the source image for Andy Warhol's Mao wallpaper that was part of the original installation of the Mao paintings at the Musée Galliera, Paris in 1974.

More from Works from the Collection of Michael Crichton

View All