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Lot Essay
In early 1964, Andy Warhol embarked upon an elaborate and meticulously executed project—his first significant undertaking in the now-famous Factory on East 47th street in Manhattan—which became known as the Brillo box sculptures. Some of the boxes were exhibited at the Dwan Gallery in Los Angeles from February 2nd until February 29th in a show called Boxes, but the majority were shown at Eleanor Ward’s Stable Gallery in New York on April 21, 1964. The Stable show proved to be truly revolutionary, adding another level of notoriety to Warhol’s growing reputation. In what might be termed the first instance of “installation art,” Warhol packed literally hundreds of boxes inside the gallery’s 74th street location. The front room included about 100 Brillo box sculptures, all rendered in red and blue on white, while Kellogg’s Corn Flakes were in the rear gallery. On opening night, a line stretched down the block and gallery-goers giggled as they squeezed into the small rooms that were packed with Warhol’s boxes. Critics were utterly flabbergasted. Lawrence Campbell, writing for Art News, described the show: “Andy Warhol is the most extreme of the Pop artists, and his shows are invariably more interesting as ideas. …The result is that his exhibitions have the power of shocking and arousing indignation. …There was a curious effect on the gallery; it became the storage room of an A. And the A became an art gallery—one found oneself avoiding the cartons as though they had suddenly become valuable” (L. Campbell, “Andy Warhol,” Art News, vol. 63, no. 4 (Summer 1964), p. 16).
Though Warhol’s boxes deliberately copy their real-life cardboard counterparts, it is telling to note that Warhol did not simply exhibit the original boxes, but rather created a hand-crafted facsimile. Unlike Duchamp, whose readymades were exhibited simply as they were, with no direct artist involvement, Warhol’s boxes were hand-crafted in wood and painted in a way that still displays the unique hand of the artist. True, Warhol employed silkscreens to render the box logos, but each box is unique, in that the imperfections and variations of Warhol’s technique vary from box to box. Further, because they are constructed of wood rather than cardboard, the boxes can never be opened. They exist in a perpetual state of newness.
Though Warhol’s boxes deliberately copy their real-life cardboard counterparts, it is telling to note that Warhol did not simply exhibit the original boxes, but rather created a hand-crafted facsimile. Unlike Duchamp, whose readymades were exhibited simply as they were, with no direct artist involvement, Warhol’s boxes were hand-crafted in wood and painted in a way that still displays the unique hand of the artist. True, Warhol employed silkscreens to render the box logos, but each box is unique, in that the imperfections and variations of Warhol’s technique vary from box to box. Further, because they are constructed of wood rather than cardboard, the boxes can never be opened. They exist in a perpetual state of newness.