ANDY WARHOL’S TAKE ON THE QUEEN FOR SALE AT BONHAMS
A rare trial proof copy of Andy Warhol’s 1985 portrait of The Queen is to be auctioned at Bonhams Print Sale in London on 11 July. It is estimated at £40,000-60,000.
The signed and numbered print, Queen Elizabeth II, is from the Reigning Queens series which also includes the Queens of Denmark, the Netherlands and Swaziland. It was his last print-portrait before his untimely death in 1987.
It is based on a portrait of Queen Elizabeth painted in 1977 to mark her Silver Jubilee. Given Warhol’s fascination with transvestites of whom he painted a series in the 1970s called Drag Queens or Ladies and Gentleman, the Reigning Queens title is clearly intended as a pun on Raging Queens. The two series also share the same bright, almost garish palettes. As always with Warhol, however, the flippancy masks a more serious point about the nature of celebrity and image in the modern world.
Writing of Warhol and his portrait of the Queen in the latest edition of Bonhams Magazine, the artist, art critic and journalist Adrian Dannatt says, “Warhol was, of course, a commercial artist working in design, fashion and advertising for many years before he crossed over into the world of fine art. It is in his portraits above all that Warhol combined these two aesthetic domains, deploying all his graphic skill, his eye for engaging line and colour, his ‘creative director’ talents to make images that would not only appeal to his immediate clients, but also to absolute strangers in the years to come.”
For further sale information please go to www.bonhams.com/prints
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street and Knightsbridge; and a further three in the UK regions and Scotland. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Connecticut in the USA; and Germany, France, Monaco, Hong Kong and Australia. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments go to www.bonhams.com.
