Andy Warhol

Estate of Andy Warhol
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York
Blains Fine Art, London
Private Collection, New York
Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2006

Milan, Marco Voena; Torino, Photo & Contemporary, Andy Warhol: American Beauty, October - December 2002

This work is in very good condition overall. The surface is clean and fresh. There is evidence of light wear and handling along the edges with associated pinpoint losses. Under ultraviolet light inspection there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Andy Warhol's portraits of the 1980's were as glitzy and glamorous as the decade itself. An ode to big names and bright lights, they were a celebration of all the artifices of invention, re-invention and make-believe. Born Pia Alfreda Schpani in Hoboken, New Jersey to Polish and Italian immigrants, our heroine is the epitomy of the American dream. Working her way up the Hollywood ranks until there was a buzz around her name and a Golden Globe in her hands, Pia Zadora went from being just a girl next door to America's sweetheart within a few short years.
Leaving behind the faded newsprint portraits and soup cans of the his early years, in the 1970's Warhol turned his attention to the characters which danced about his colorful social calender. He discovered that many of the famed artists, dealers, actors and socialites that surrounded him would pay to have their portraits painted for they too wanted to be idolized like Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. Suddenly in Warhol's studio, the mundane seemed to melt away and one was left with an image of themselves with pouty red lips, flowing hair and a punchy orange backdrop.  A tribute to self-invention, these works were not meant as matter of fact portrayals, but rather as utopian images - images of selves re-imagined. "Warhol's interest in people- to which his lifelong pursuit of portraiture attests- was not a search for inner truths, but an endless fascination with the theatre of living," (Nicholas Baume as quoted in Exh. Cat. Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum [and travelling], About Face: Andy Warhol Portraits, 1999- 2000, p. 91). Pia Zadora captures not only the essence of a woman but the sentiment of an era. Like so many of the faces on the wall of Warhol's famed 1979 Whitney exposition Andy Warhol: Portraits of the 70's, its bright spashes of color and the laughter in the sitters eyes seem to embody all that glittered in 1970's Manhattan.