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拍品专文
Painted in 1981, Dollar Sign is an iconic example of one of Andy Warhol’s most enduring and instantly- recognizable motifs. The Dollar Sign paintings were first shown in 1982 at the Castelli Gallery – the epicenter of New York’s art world at the time. Warhol attended the opening and later reflected on the event in his diary: “Another big opening of mine – a double – Dollar Signs at the Castelli on Greene Street and Reversals at the Castelli on West Broadway…it was like a big sixties day’ (Andy Warhol quoted in P. Hackett, ed., The Andy Warhol Diaries, New York, 1989, p. 425). Indeed, the Greene Street gallery space was entirely devoted to Warhol’s bold canvases, each painted in different opulent color schemes. With its exceptionally crisp silkscreen, the smooth gradient from blue to black, and the pale blue background juxtaposed with nuanced shades of tangerine and chartreuse, the present lot shows Warhol at his best and most technically focused.
Painted later in Warhol’s career, the Dollar Sign paintings are a mature exploration of the very themes and questions that fascinated Warhol throughout his entire practice. Like the Campbell’s Soup Cans, Warhol's repetition of this monetary symbol reflects notions of mass production, while taking it a step further to directly spotlight the commodification of art and currency. Akin to Warhol’s iconic paintings of Marilyn Monroe, the Dollar Sign paintings also have a religious, venerative quality, highlighting the blind devotion that money can inspire. Altogether, these paintings can be seen as a commentary on the materialistic nature of American culture in the 1980s broadly and also, perhaps, more personally; these paintings seem to reveal some of the artist’s inner workings after nearly two decades of an uncontested reign over the commercial art world, witnessing firsthand the happenings at the intersection between art and commerce. Yet, despite how timely these must have felt to both the artist and the community in the early 1980s, Warhol was always something of an oracle. Today, the Dollar Sign paintings continue to provoke discussion and reflection on the relationship between art, money, and culture in the modern world.
Painted later in Warhol’s career, the Dollar Sign paintings are a mature exploration of the very themes and questions that fascinated Warhol throughout his entire practice. Like the Campbell’s Soup Cans, Warhol's repetition of this monetary symbol reflects notions of mass production, while taking it a step further to directly spotlight the commodification of art and currency. Akin to Warhol’s iconic paintings of Marilyn Monroe, the Dollar Sign paintings also have a religious, venerative quality, highlighting the blind devotion that money can inspire. Altogether, these paintings can be seen as a commentary on the materialistic nature of American culture in the 1980s broadly and also, perhaps, more personally; these paintings seem to reveal some of the artist’s inner workings after nearly two decades of an uncontested reign over the commercial art world, witnessing firsthand the happenings at the intersection between art and commerce. Yet, despite how timely these must have felt to both the artist and the community in the early 1980s, Warhol was always something of an oracle. Today, the Dollar Sign paintings continue to provoke discussion and reflection on the relationship between art, money, and culture in the modern world.