Lot Essay
Warhol created the Brodovitch Shoe for Alexey Brodovich (1898-1971), the celebrated art director of Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958. Under the editorship of Carmel Snow, widely regarded as America's most important fashion journalist, Brodovitch introduced the advanced aesthetic ideas to which he had been exposed in Paris into mainstream graphic design in the United States. He assumed total control of the magazine's visual content, seeking new ways of presenting familiar material, striving to jar the reader's sensibility and astonish the eye. He was an influential teacher as well, and as an advocate of contemporary photography he helped to advance the careers of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.
Warhol came into contact with Brodovitch while working on an advertising campaign for the I. Miller Shoe Company, designs for which appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Glamour, and The New York Times. In 1957 Warhol was awarded the Art Director's Medal for his I. Miller ads. Warhol created the Brodovitch Shoe as a tribute to the doyen of fashion art directors. Executed in gold leaf and collage over a blotted black ink drawing, it is directly related to Warhol's famous series of celebrity shoes shown in "The Golden Slipper Show or Shoes Shoe in America" exhibition at the Bodley Gallery, New York in 1956.
Warhol came into contact with Brodovitch while working on an advertising campaign for the I. Miller Shoe Company, designs for which appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Glamour, and The New York Times. In 1957 Warhol was awarded the Art Director's Medal for his I. Miller ads. Warhol created the Brodovitch Shoe as a tribute to the doyen of fashion art directors. Executed in gold leaf and collage over a blotted black ink drawing, it is directly related to Warhol's famous series of celebrity shoes shown in "The Golden Slipper Show or Shoes Shoe in America" exhibition at the Bodley Gallery, New York in 1956.