Todd Brassner, New York
Bo Ling Cheng, New York
Mark Kelman, New York
Shaindy Fenton, Fort Worth
Lawrence Luhring, New York
Sotheby's, New York, May 5-6, 1986, lot 103
Paul Kasmin, New York
Private Collection
Faggionato Fine Arts, London
Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles

Georg Frei and Neil Printz, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculptures 1964 - 1969, Vol. 01, New York, 2001, cat. no. 154, p. 142, illustrated in color

This work is in good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling to the edges and two minor media accretions to the right and left of Washington's head. In the area underneath the frame at the edges, there is hairline craquelure at the pull margin, paint loss along the top edge and some slight yellowing to the edges due to the frame sitting on top of the canvas. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
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.

Warhol revolutionized American art in the early 1960s, and 1962 marked arguably the most pivotal year of his oeuvre. Throughout that year, Warhol created a wide range of new stylistic aesthetics and art processes, culminating in his ground-breaking use of the silkscreen technique. The artist’s commentary through his own life-as-art and his physical art have radically changed the paradigm of Post-War art.  His ability to elevate the mundane and everyday: newspaper clippings, middle-class consumer items, even the image of the American dollar bill itself, was a radical shift from the ephemeral and intellectual art of the Abstract Expressionists who preceded him.

In 1962, the year of One Dollar Bill, Warhol would discover the great equalizer of his practice, the silkscreen, and with it, its mechanized connotations of consumerist, American middleﷺ class culture.  As the ultimate symbol of desire and attainment, status and worth, need and greed, the dollar bill is without peer in its internationalism and potent symbolism.  Warhol dismissed the need for self-referential and expressive gestures; his intent was to mirror our world back to us in a manner that highlights the impersonality, the ubiquity and the over-abunꦐdance of our material surroundings.

In One Dollar Bill,Warhol's “still-life” centers on a rather common singular dollar bill, presenting a brand of 'Pop' culture reality that dared to challenge the grand history of “high art” still life painting as practiced by the countless generations before him. Warhol’s saw money as pure commodity, and the artist famously spoke of how, “I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting. I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall. Then when someone visited you, the first thing they would see is the money on the wall." (Warhol in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: from A to Z and Back Again, New York, 1975, pp. 133-134).  That his art possessed powers similar to money both intrigued and amused Warhol – it is capable of simultaneously♊ stimulating desire and imagination as expertly elicited by this early exemplar.