Estate of Andy Warhol
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York
Van de Weghe Fine Art, New York
Acqu🥀ired by the present owner from the above

Beacon, DIA: Beacon, Dia's Andy: Through the Lens of Patronage, May 2005 - April 2006, no. 8

Exh. Cat., Gagosian Gallery, Andy Warhol B & W Paintings Ads and Illustrations 1985-1986, 2002, p. 44, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. There is an unflattened horizontal crease in the canvas approximatly half way down from the left edge to the middle of the canvas, and another unflattened crease at the right corner. There is pigment shrinkage scattered throughout visible in the black pigment. There is minor handling wear at the edges. Framed in a shadow box frame under Plexiglas; the entire canvas is visible. This work has not been exmained out of the frame.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Work Boots is an important, dynamic painting from a series of pictures known as the Black & White paintings, created by Andy Wa🐠rhol in the mid 1980s.

By the early 1980s Warhol was aware that the art world thrived on the discovery of the fresh, young voices.  As he wrote in his diary, "I got so nervous thinking about all these new kids painting away and me just going toꦯ parties", (November 16, 1980). Soon he was collaborating with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, perhaps hoping to draw 🌳inspiration from these rising stars while sharing in the attention they generated.  

At the same time, Warhol returned to what one might 💖call his roots, finding inspiration for a superb series of Black & White paintings in the familiar realm of print media. The series is largely based on scraps of 🌳advertising matter – classified ads and illustrations from fliers – which he had collected over the years, mostly from the early and mid 1960s when this type of source material fueled his assent to stardom. In contrast to the slick, corporate imagery that he appropriated for his 1984 Ads series, these materials were humble in origin and vernacular in style. Some are invested with clues about their date of origin – for instance, the ads for Beatle Boots, a short-lived fad – which veneer them with nostalgia.  Arguably they appealed to him because of their banality, but this underestimates the intensity he brought to contemplating every kind of imagery, particularly the sort created to transmit messages of persuasion. This was where his career began, it was what he loved – with a passion not much visible to the public – and he never strayed far from it.

Some of the sources contain images which are so simple that they function effectively as symbols for the messages they carry (Hamburger, Puma Invader).  Some sources incorporate disjointed, incomplete lettering such as in the composition of Works Boots.  To properly understand the series, one must recognize that the writing, pictures and diagrams are part and parcel of the same immediate, straight-forward strategy.  For Warhol, there was no difference between an idea pictured and the idea written.  The specialized cultural literacy required to read words is also able to decode these simple but very source specific images.  Warhol's vision was so acclimated to this notion that he contemplated an entire series based on the front pages of newspapers, which he had experimented with as early as 1962 and returned to in 1981 (see Charles Stuckey et al. Andy Warhol - Heaven and Hell Are Just One Breath Away! - Late Paintings and Related Works, 1984-1986, New York, 1992, figs. 10 and 11; page 12, footnote 32).  In these works, images combine words, pictures and emblematic illustrations, which shed their original meaning ✤after they are enlarged, made into silkscreened paintings and hung on walls, long after the headlines have lost their topicality.  

This transformation is emphasized in his Reversal series, dating from 1979-1986 : variants where the blacks are rendered in white and vice versa. When the smaller format for Work Boots is enlarged to monumental scale, the textures of the white background spaces become exactly as compelling as the white words they frame. It is like an ab♓stract design: a medley of black and white passages reminiscent of a Franz Kline painting. But not quite – the genius of the image never surrenders its banal grip on our refined viewing sensibilities and we experience, simultaneously, high art and low art. 

Warhol's visionary ability to expand infinitely the repertoire of appropriated content for fine art has been his principal legacy and assures his place as one of the most influential cultural figures of the 20th century.  The present work, comprising humble source material, monochrome palette and virtuoso painting, is a dramatic example of Andy Warhol at the pinnacle of his creative life.