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Lot Essay
The present lot was acquired by Refco, Inc. in 1987 from the Kicken Gallery in Berlin. At that time, Mapplethorpe mounted, at the Robert Miller Gallery, New York, an exhibition of what has come to be considered his most complex, mature and evolved body of work - unique photographic-constructions consisting of either silver or platinum prints each contained in a frame specifically designed and designated for the given image. The present lot consists of a print from the standard Mapplethorpe edition of 10, which was framed by Refco's in-house curatorial offices as per specific instructions given at that time in accordance with the piece at the Miller exhibition.
Just as Mapplethorpe's work has come to embody a searing vision of a precise moment in the cultural thread of New York City in the 1980's, there is perhaps no other sitter that could provide a more perfect subject. Exceedingly rare, prints of this portrait of Warhol, with a halo, just before his death in 1987 have seldom become available in the past 20 years, and never before in a period frame, constructed to Mapplethorpe's precise instructions at that time.
Just as Mapplethorpe's work has come to embody a searing vision of a precise moment in the cultural thread of New York City in the 1980's, there is perhaps no other sitter that could provide a more perfect subject. Exceedingly rare, prints of this portrait of Warhol, with a halo, just before his death in 1987 have seldom become available in the past 20 years, and never before in a period frame, constructed to Mapplethorpe's precise instructions at that time.