Martin Lawrence Galleries, Los Angeles
Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art, Part II, 18 November 1992, Lot 187

Vienna, KunstHaus; Athens, National Gallery; Thessaloniki;
Orlando, Museum of Art; Fort Lauderdale, Museum of Art; Taipei, Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage; Milan, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta; Ludwigshafen, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum; Helsinki, Kunsthalle; Warsaw, The National Museum; Cracow, The National Museum; Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Andy Warhol, 1993-1999
Kochi, The Museum of Art; Tokyo, The Bunkamura Museum of Art; Umeda-Osaka, Daimaru Museum; Hiroshima, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art; Kawamura, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art; Nagoya, Nagoya City Art Museum; Niigata, Niigata City Art Museum, Andy Warhol, 2000-2001

 

Colours: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is deeper and richer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is a faint stretcher mark running parallel to the four extreme overturn edges, approximately 1 cm in. There is a faint black rub mark (approximately 3 cm. long) in the upper left quadrant, 5 cm. below the "w" letter. Upon close inspection of the extreme overturn edges there are several very fine stable tension cracks. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"She embodies everything that Blackglama looks for in a 🍌legend – glamour, sophistication and a timeless elegance." Ed Brennan, CEO & President of American Legend Mink, The Holding Company fo🎀r the Blackglama brand

The appointment of Judy Garland as the face of the Blackglama advertising campaign in 1968 provided Warhol with the perfect motif with which to make a two pronged statement on the dual obsessions he perceived driving American culture: the cult of the celebrity, and the allure of luxury goods. However, Judy Garland died tragically the following year and he did not use the image as a subject for one of his paintings until fifteen years later, when nearin🙈g his sixtieth birthday and facing his own mortality head on, the brand's famous trademark "What becomes a Legend Most?" was a question the world's 🎃most famous and successful artist was increasingly asking himself. 

Just as the icons he had immortalised in the early 1960s like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Pressley were stars whose memory, although forever young, were eternally tinged with the sadness of their tragic demise, so too in this timeless portrait of Judy Garland, who had herself died aged just 47 from an overdose the year after she starred in the Blackglama campaign, the artist enshrines his trinity of lifelong fascinations with consumerism, celebrity and death. Moreover, his posthumous use of it, more than fifteen years on from the actress' death, at a time when the star of her celebrity had faded under the brightness of Hollywood's newest generation of leading ladies, it tackles the fickleness of fame head on with the frankness of Warhol's maturity. "His paintings do not, after all, simply provide a transition from consumer culture to high art. They call into question the uses to which we put all of our images, especially images of ourselves." (Carter Ratcliffe, Warhol, New York 1983, p. 56)