Lot Details
Lot 1151
ANDY WARHOL Signed photograph depicting Andy Warhol Meeting Pope John Paul II.
Rome: circa 2 April 1980. Vintage color photograph on Kodak paper with the backstamps of a Roman printer, 5 x 7 inches (13 x 17 cm), signed "Andy Warhol" in black ink and also inscribed "Fondly Uncle Fred" by Fred Hughes, who stands next to Warhol in the photograph. Abraded area in the top center of the image, light handling wear and soiling, the Warhol signature somewhat weak.
In April 1980, Andy Warhol and Fred Hughes travelled to Rome for what they thought was a private audience with the Pope, but it turned out to be the weekly audience with 5000 ticketed attendees. In his diary, Warhol recorded "They finally took us in to our seats with the rest of the 5,000 people and a nun screamed out, 'You're Andy Warhol! Can I have your autograph?' She looked like Valerie Solanis so I got scared she'd pull a gun out and shoot me. Then I had to sign five more autographs for other nuns. And I just get so nervous at church." Having been raised in a traditional Polish Catholic family, Warhol was no stranger to religion and frequently incorporated angels and religious imagery into his artwork including a commission to create a series of films titled "Sunrise/Sunset" for the Vatican pavilion at the World's Fair in San Antonio (which was never built). But it was after being shot at point blank range by Valerie Solanis in June 1968, and the months of recovery and scarring that followed, that made Warhol vow to attend church on Sundays. It is thus no shock that Warhol thought of Solanis that day in Rome. Warhol would also continue working in the religious theme, particularly in 1984 when he was commissioned to make The Last Supper Series, a series that took on deep meaning and controversy as the AIDS crisis grew and the Church was criticized for their harsh stance on gay men. Warhol's Last Supper Series was one of his last major completed series before his death in 1987 and is iconic today.
In this photograph we see Warhol and Pope John Paul II embracing hands as an always dapper Fred Hughes looks on between them. We do not trace another signed example of this photograph and presume them signed as presentation keepsakes for Warhol and Hughes' inner circle, such as Brigid Berlin.
See The Andy Warhol Diaries, edited by Pat Hackett, First Twelve Edition, 2014, p. 282.
C Estate of Brigid Berlin
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