Andy Warhol

Jay Shriver, New York (a gift from the artist)
Richard Hines, New York
Barbara Divver, New York
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
Vivian Horan, New York
William J. Hokin, Chicago
Donald J. Christal, Los Angeles
Sale: Christie's, New York, Contemporary Art, 21 November 1996, Lot 179
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner 

Executed in the seminal year of 1962, the key date when Warhol's pioneering Pop ideology conflated with his very first use of the silkscreen to precipitate an era of explosive creativity, including the Marilyns, Avanti Cars is one of the earliest examples of the repeated image in his work. Although he is perhaps best known in the public eye for his celebrity portraits, it is the serial repetition of images which really broke the artistic mould and shaped much of our culture today. That same year, he produced serial images of Campbell's Soup Cans, Dollar Bills and Coca-Cola. Consistent with Warhol's fascination with American consumerism and its packaging, Avanti Cars addresses both 'high' and 'low' culture.  

The Avanti Cars would at first sight appear to be the ideal Warhol subject, the original car was introduced in America in 1962 and stood as a symbol of glamour and sophistication, displaying a new edgy state-of-the art design.  However, the undeniable fact remained that the Avanti car was in reality made of plastic and was a mass produced American commodity. A racy and stylish representation of one of America's most coveted possessions - the sports car - it was with this series that Warhol made the new achievement of developing and composing paintings of repeated imagery. If this was the ideal American dream, only a few months later towards the end of 1962, Warhol was to embark on his major series of Death and Disasters, which would show the end of the American dream, in the horrific images of his Car Crashes.

Warhol's projection of the image of the Avanti car sixteen times across his canvas makes a bold statement.  The mirror-like repetition of the image practically serves as a mirror of consumerism, reflecting the reality of mass production.  With little variation in colour, the composition is sleek and classic and is dependant solely on the tonal qualities of the grey scale.  In some areas, the blacks appear dark and inky while in others, light and grainy - revealing the variable process of the newly invented silkscreen that Warhol pioneered.  Warhol intentionally placed his screens with slight unevenness and allowed for different gradations in the pressure of the ink screening, as these details alluded to a handmade touch that is a trademark of the early works.

Not long after its creation, Avanti Cars appeared in the November 1962 issue of the ever-popular Harper's Bazaar.  The magazine featured an article "Deus Ex Machina" - a glossy four page spread celebrating Andy Warhol and his cars.  Warhol was commissioned by the magazine to execute a total of nine works to appear in the feature, and the group of works were placed stacked against each other like a montage and photographed by Eric Pollitzer at Warhol's studio at 1342 Lexington Avenue.  The system of composing these pictures by arranging them leaning on top of one another in an apparently laissez-faire manner is a hallmark of photographs made in the artist's studio.  Aside from the Avanti Car, images of multiples of other cars such as Cadillacs, Pontiacs and Lincolns, as well as the original Coca-Cola bottles were also included.

By replicating the potent symbol of the American dream Warhol forced American society to confront its preconceptions regarding identity in a self-styled consumerist culture. This work characterises the inauguration of Warhol's duplication and embodies the cause of his multiplicity: "I started repeating the same image because I liked the way the repetition changed the same image. Also, I felt at the time, as I do now, that people can look at and absorb more than one image at a time" (Andy Warhol in Kenneth Goldsmith, Ed., I'll be Your Mirror: the Selected Andy Warhol Interviews, New York 2004, p. 193).