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ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987) CROSSES stamped with Foundation seal and numbered PA14.028 synthetic poly...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:500,000.00 - 700,000.00 USD
ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987) CROSSES stamped with Foundation seal and numbered PA14.028 synthetic poly...
ANDY WARHOL
(1928-1987)
CROSSES
stamped with Foundation seal and numbered PA14.028
synthetic polymer and
silkscreen on canvas
90 1/8 x 70 1/2 in. (229 x 179 cm)
executed 1981-1982 <p>PROVENANCE
Jablonka Galerie, COLOGNE <p>EXHIBITED
COLOGNE, Diözesanmuseum, ANDY WARHOL: CROSSES, February 19-May 24, 1999, p. 4 (illustrated)
Born Andrew Warhola in 1928, Andy Warhol was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a home where family and religion were paramount. Son of Czecheslovakian immigrants, Warhol was introduced at an early age to the strict Catholic regimen that dictated the lives of his parents. With few distractions to ease their hardships, the Warhols, like many Americans, depended on their faith to provide inspiration and to ease the emotional and financial distress caused by the Great Depression.
The family's home was decorated with crucifixes, religious pictures, and shrines, the later of which Andy himself had painted and kept in his room. This sense of ritual and belief stayed with Andy throughout his entire life and was reflected in numerous works. Even in his earliest compositions, one can see visual evidence of religious iconography.
In 1982, well into Warhol's career, he was presented with the opportunity to exhibit at Galéria Fernando Vijande, Madrid. Taking Spain's religious and political history into consideration, Warhol decided on a combination of works that would reflect the violent and simultaneously religious aspects of the Spanish Inquisition. Guns, knives and crosses were the chosen symbols. Although only a selected number of canvases were exhibited, Warhol continued to explore the cross as an icon in a number of sizes, colors, and compositions. In total there are 19 large canvases with crosses, three of which are single crosses. Out of the remaining canvases only seven exist that feature three different colors. CROSSES, 1981-1982, is from this group and is unique.
CROSSES, 1981-1982, is composed of three rows, four crosses each in gray, pink, and lime green. The repetition of the cross places this holy icon in the same pattern as Warhol's early CAMPBELL SOUP CANS or DOLLAR SIGNS. In this way, Warhol draws a parallel between the symbols with which he was so personally familiar. The cross becomes a marketable form that is like the Campbell soup label or dollar signs, instantly recognizable. The canvas is symbolically pure in form and direct in ordered composition. The cross is stripped down and presented to the viewer as being less an object of devotion and more a logo for one of the world's largest institutions.
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