(Pittsburgh, 1928 – New York, 1987)
Male partial Figure, circa 1956-1957
Blue ballpoint pen on paper
Stamped on the back :
- The Estate of Andy Warhol
- The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
and the manuscript number VF 220 048 1/3
42.6 x 35.3 cm
Provenance:
- Andy Warhol Estate, New York
- The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York
Exhibitions :
- Masculin / Masculin L'homme nu dans l'art de 1800 à nos jours, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, from September 24, 2013 to January 12, 2014, under no. 200
- Masculine / Masculine L'homme nu de 1800 à nos jours, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico, from March 6 to June 17, 2014, under no. 143
- Andy Warhol Now, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, from December 12, 2020 to June 13, 2021
- Andy Warhol, Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto, from July 17 to 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 Men, foreword by Alan Cumming, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, September 2004, reproduced in color on page 6 under the title "Male Partial Figure, Couples"
- Masculine / Masculine L'homme nu dans l'art de 1800 à nos jours, Catalogue de l'exposition du Musée d'Orsay, ed. Flammarion, Paris, 2013, described p. 295 and reproduced in color on p. 267 as no. 200
- Masculine / Masculine L'homme nu de 1800 à nos jours, Catalogue of the exhibition of the Museo Nacional de Arte, editions El Viso, Mexico City, 2014, described on p. 281 and reproduced in color on p. 243 under no. 143
- Andy Warhol Love, Sex & Desire, Drawings 1950-1962 by Blake Gopnik, Drew Zeiba, foreword by Michael Dayton Hermann, ed. Taschen, Cologne, 2020, reproduced in color on p. 137
- Andy Warhol Now by Yilmaz Dziewior and Gregor Muir, exhibition catalog Museum Ludwig, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2020, described on p. 212
- Referenced in The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné in preparation by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Before becoming the major artist of Pop-Art, Andy WARHOL realized several series of drawings with ballpoint pen or pen that revealed his great sensitivity of draftsman. In the mid-fifties, the style of WARHOL was already very strong and was characterized by the pure line and the synthesis of the subject reduced to the essential. The details are eliminated, the line is clear and without repentance. In these linear drawings, WARHOL was inspired by both the technique and style of Henri MATISSE and Jean COCTEAU he admired.
Throughout his life, WARHOL was fascinated by the male body in his drawings, silkscreens and acrylics as well as his Polaroid and most of his cinematographic work. This attraction of the artist is particularly evident in his linear drawings of the middle of the fifties which have for subjects young men of his entourage or anatomy of male body.
In 1956, WARHOL organized one of his first solo exhibitions of drawings in New York, at the Bodley Gallery, which he named Drawings for a Boy Book. The drawings of this period present a delicacy and tenderness apart in the work of the artist and are among his most personal and sensual works.