The Estate of Andy Warhol, New York
Sale: Christie's, New York, Post-War and Contemporary Art, 9 November 2005, Lot 358
Acquired directly from the above by t꧅he present owner

New York, Museum of Modern Art; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago; London, Hayward Gallery; Cologne, Museum Ludwig; Venice, Palazzo Grassi; Paris, Musée National d'art Moderne; Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Andy Warhol: A Retrospective, 1989-1990, p.365, no. 397, illustrated
New York, Van de Weghe Fine Art, Andy Warhol Guns, 2001

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the background tends more towards a true silver in the original, with no purple undertones. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is very minor wear to the outer edge of the top right extreme corner tip. There is very light undulation along the right edge. There is a horizontal shallow crease in the lower right hand corner. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet 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."

You like guns, don't you? "Yes, I think they're really kind of nice"
Andy Warhol cited in: Phaidon, Giant, London, 2006, p. 548

"The Guns and Knives paintings from 1981-1982 are stark reminders of the violent society we lived in then and now. Having nearly been killed by a handgun Andy was able to make paintings of guns as iconic objects. In order to choose which guns he would use we made calls to friends who might know someone with a gun. A few scary people, with first names only, came by and let Andy take Polaroid's of their weapons." (Vincent Fremont, Cast a Cold Eye: The Late Work of Andy Warhol, New York 2006, p. 157)

Andy Warhol obsessed over the idea of death throughout his career, yet it was only in 1980s that his growing concerns over his own impending mortality became a subject of his work. No other series demonstrated this fascination with the drama and proximity of death so clearly as his Gun and Knives paintings from 1981-82 which announced Warhol's artistically fertile Renaissance during the 1980s as he returned to painting full-time in the studio. His choice of weapons as suitable subjects with which to re-ignite his late career was particularly poignant and was filled with the artist's acute awareness of the weapon's latent potential for destruction following the attempt that had been made on his life in 1968.  

As motifs, the Guns and Knives enabled Warhol to continue his enduring fascinations with power and death that had begun in the early 1960s with the Electric Chairs and the Death and Disaster paintings. Additionally, when considered in the company of Warhol's earlier consumerist images from that period, of dollar bills, Campbell's Soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles, the sleek and shiny surface of the Smith & Wesson revolver presented itself as another desirable, recognizable consumerist object; one with equally loaded and powerful loaded associations.

In the present work, Warhol engages in the visually seductive language of weaponry. Fetishizing the gun as a status symbol against a sleek silver background rather than as a tool that begets violence and death, this series is all the more powerful because of Warhol's own experience as the victim of Valarie Solanos' attempt on his life on 3^rd June 1968. Warhol gave a subsequent account of this incident that came so close to ending his life: "... as I was putting the phone down, I heard a loud exploding noise and whirled around: I saw Valerie pointing a gun at me and I realized she'd just fired it. I said "No! No, Valerie! Don't do it!" and she shot at me again. I dropped down to the floor as if I'd been hit I didn't know if I actually was or not. I tried to crawl under the desk. She moved in closer, fired again, and then I felt horrible, horrible pain, like a cherry bomb exploding inside me." (Andy Warhol cited in: Andy Warhol & Pat Hackett, POPism: The Warhol Sixties, Orlando 1980, p. 343).