«MORE THAN ANYTHING PEOPLE JUST WANT STARS»

Whereas Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Wesselman and Rosenquist are all acknowledged as leading Pop artists alongside Warhol in the 1960s, only “Andy” has become the personification of the very era and the glamor he immortalized. It was the legendary dealer Ivan Karp of the Leo Castelli Gallery, who suggested to Warhol that he paint his first self-portrait. “You know, people want to see you. Your looks are responsible for a certain part of your fame, they feed the imagination” (I. Karp, as cited in C. Ratcliff, Andy Warhol, New York, 1983, p.52). Karp enlisted the support of pioneering Detroit collector Florence Barron. She had initially been taken to Warhol’s studio to discuss the commission of her own portrait. In what was a brilliant reversal of the typical artist-patron relationship, Barron proposed instead that she would commission Warhol to paint his portrait for her - and to turn the icon-making apparatus of his Pop art vision on himself.

-Christies