(Pittsburgh, 1928 – New York, 1987)
Male Nude, 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
Inscribed on the back VF 205.012
42,5 x 35,5 cm
Provenance:
- Andy Warhol Estate, New York - The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York
Exhibitions :
- Andy Warhol, Tate Modern, London, from 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
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 131
- Andy Warhol by Gregor Muir and Yilmaz Dziewior, catalogue 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 catalogue for Museum Ludwig, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2020, described on p. 212 and reproduced in color on p. 79
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.