Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

Golden Cat

Details
Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Golden Cat
signed and dedicated 'especially for you, at the request of John Louise, by Andy Warhol' (lower edge)
collage of gold leaf and gold trim over blotted black ink on paper
22 x 16 in. (57.8 x 41.9 cm.)
Executed in 1956
Provenance
Alison M. Beyea, New York (acquired from the artist)
Literature
A. Brown, Andy Warhol: His Early Works, 1947-1959, New York, 1971, p. 53 (illustrated).
R. Crone, Andy Warhol: A Picture Show by the Artist, New York, 1987, p. 213 (illustrated).
J. Kornbluth, Pre-Pop Warhol, New York, 1988, p. 171 (illustrated). ed. K. McShine, Andy Warhol Retrospective, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1989, p. 416, no. 57 (installation view of the 1971 Gotham Book Mart exhibition illustrated).
Exhibited
New York, Gotham Book Mart, Andy Warhol: His Early Works, 1947-1959, 1971.
Dsseldorf, Stdtische Kunsthalle, and Stuttgart, Wrttembergischer Kunstverein, Andy Warhol: The Early Work 1942-1975, 1976, no. 214.
New York, New York University, Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, "Success is a Job in New York...": The Early Art and Business of Andy Warhol, 1989, no. 24.

Lot Essay

Throughout his life Warhol was fascinated by and surrounded himself with cats. In his apartment on Lexington Avenue "he had something like nine cats," said his close friend Ted Carey. "In the bedroom [he] had a gold antique Louis XV bed, very ornate, with a tiger-skin throw rug... and cats!," said George Hartman, another friend. (quoted in P.S. Smith, Warhol: Conversations about the Artist, Ann Arbor, 1988, pp. 86 and 119).

In the 1950s Warhol published his book of illustrations 25 Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy with Charles Lisanby, and made numerous drawings and watercolors of his feline friends. These charming portraits reach a high-note in Golden Cat, the most important of his works in this genre and the only one executed in gold leaf. With the regal extravagance of its crowned and bejeweled subject, lavished under fanciful brocade and trimmings, the work achieves an iconic status along with other major works of the fifties, notably Warhol's series of golden shoes, created the same year. Like the shoes, Golden Cat is a key example of Warhol's personal and fanciful approach to image-making during the pre-Pop period.

Golden Cat is contained in the original wooden frame selected by Warhol.