(Pittsburgh, 1928 – New York, 1987)
Kneeling Male over Male lower Torso, Circa 1955-1957
Blue ballpoint pen on paper
On the back, the stamp Andy Warhol / Art Authentication / Board, Inc. Authentic
and the handwritten number A129.981
42.7 x 35.3 cm
Work from the Pre-Pop period, circa 1955-57
Provenance : - Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
- Lizardi-Harp Gallery, Pasadena, California, USA
- Private collection, USA
Exhibitions :
- Andy Warhol, Tate Modern, London, March 12 to November 15, 2020
- Andy Warhol Now, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, December 12, 2020 to June 13, 2021
- Andy Warhol, Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto, July 17 - October 24, 2021
- Andy Warhol, Aspen Art Museum, November 23, 2021 - March 27, 2022
- Over the Rainbow, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, June 28 - November 13, 2023
Literature :
- Andy Warhol by Gregor Muir and Yilmaz Dziewior, catalog of the exhibition at Tate Modern, Tate Publishing, London, 2020, described on p. 210 and reproduced in color on p. 79
- Andy Warhol Now by Yilmaz Dziewior and Gregor Muir, exhibition catalog for Museum Ludwig, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2020, described on p. 212 and reproduced in color on p. 79
- Referenced in The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné in preparation by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Photocopy of the authentication letter from the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, dated February 4, 1998, under the number A129.981
Before becoming the major artist of Pop Art, Andy WARHOL made several series of drawings with a ballpoint pen or fountain pen that revealed his great sensitivity as a draftsman. In the mid-fifties, WARHOL's style was already very assertive and was characterized by pure line and by the synthesis of the subject reduced to the essential. The details are eliminated, the line is clear and unrepentant. In these linear drawings, WARHOL was inspired by both the technique and style of Matisse and Cocteau whom he admired.
Throughout his life, WARHOL was fascinated by the male body in his drawings, silkscreens, acrylics, Polaroids and most of his film work. This attraction is particularly evident in his linear drawings of the mid-fifties, which have as subjects young men from his entourage or anatomies of the male body.
In 1956, WARHOL held one of his first solo exhibitions of drawings in New York at the Bodley Gallery, which he entitled Drawings for a Boy Book. The drawings from this period have a delicacy and tenderness that is unique in the artist's work and are among his most personal and sensual.