Lot Details
Lot 162
WARHOL, ANDY Rare Warhol designed theater program with original drawing.
[New York: circa 1953-54]. Staple-bound theater program, the wrapper a thick folded sheet lettered in blue and yellow paint "The 12 St. Players" and with an ink drawing of a harlequin across both covers likely in Warhol's hand. Within is a folded typed onion skin playbill listing performances of "My Blackmailer", "Three Wooings" and "The Fruits of the End" and with the acknowledgement "Programs designed and executed by Andy Warhol, Aaron Fine, and Edwin Treitler." 8 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches (22 x 14 cm). The upper cover toned, both covers with a few faint spots.
The 12th Street Players was a theater group so named for the 12th St. address of its founder Bert Greene. In an interview on these salad days, Greene described Warhol's lack of ability as an actor but his great skill in designing sets, including the set for a play by fellow artist Aaron Fine listed in this program: "And it was [Fine's] play, My Blackmailer, that Andy did his best set for. And it was very original. It was based on a set of screens, and Andy decorated them, and, then, the screens were folded and they became other things. They were turned around, and they were still other things. They were just, really folding screens..." We trace no other example of this rare early Warhol ephemera.
C Property of a Prominent Manhattan Art Dealer
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