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Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus by Andy Warhol
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$1,950,000
Item No.
31-2652
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Description
Andy Warhol
1928-1987 | American
Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus
Features stamp of Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board Inc., number 102.1110 (en verso)
Silkscreen on paper mounted on canvas
Easily recognizable as one of the most famous and influential artists of the modern era, Andy Warhol was the most prominent member of the Pop Art movement that dominated the art scene in the mid-20th century. He was the quintessential artist. . .
1928-1987 | American
Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus
Features stamp of Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board Inc., number 102.1110 (en verso)
Silkscreen on paper mounted on canvas
Easily recognizable as one of the most famous and influential artists of the modern era, Andy Warhol was the most prominent member of the Pop Art movement that dominated the art scene in the mid-20th century. He was the quintessential artist. . .
Read More
Andy Warhol
1928-1987 | American
Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus
Features stamp of Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board Inc., number 102.1110 (en verso)
Silkscreen on paper mounted on canvas
Easily recognizable as one of the most famous and influential artists of the modern era, Andy Warhol was the most prominent member of the Pop Art movement that dominated the art scene in the mid-20th century. He was the quintessential artist of his time and place, elevating popular and commercial culture to the realms of high art. His distinctive photographic silkscreen printing is immediately recognizable, and the present example is a truly exceptional example of the art form.
Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus is part of the final series of Warhol's illustrious career, his famed Last Supper series. The body of work was commissioned by his friend and art dealer, Alexandre Iolas, who challenged Warhol to create a series of works based on Leonardo da Vinci's great masterpiece The Last Supper. The series would be shown at an exhibition in Milan at the Palazzo Stelline, which was across the street from da Vinci's mural in the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie. The art critic Arthur Danto describes the show, "When [Warhol’s] Last Supper was displayed in Milan, in a kind of citywide two-man show with Leonardo, 30,000 people flocked to see it, hardly any of whom went to see the ‘other’ Last Supper... When the final multivolume Popular History of Art is published, ours will be the Age of Warhol – an unlikely giant, but a giant nonetheless.”
Warhol's Last Supper cycle encompassed two distinctive series. The first included hand-painted works based on a line drawing, to which the Museum of Modern Art's The Last Supper and the Andy Warhol Museum's The Last Supper / Be Somebody with a Body belong. The second, and arguably the more important, series included silkscreens such as the present work, which Warhol derived from a black and white photograph of a widely circulated 19th-century engraving.
While the majority of his Last Supper silkscreens reproduce the image of the entire mural, Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus is among the rare detail studies that are included in the series. Unlike its unabridged counterparts, the work offers a fascinating character study that pulls the viewer into the drama and intimacy of the original work. This particular composition sheds light on the relationship between Jesus and John, physically separated by an inverted triangle of negative space, yet still compellingly intimate in their positioning. Warhol has ingeniously highlighted the connection between the two figures by muting the architectural features behind them, enhancing the psychological impact of the scene. The figure of the traitorous Peter peeks in from the left as an inescapable reminder of the fate that awaits them all.
Unlike many of his other serialized works of soup cans and Marilyns, Warhol's Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus has an emotional impact that elevates it beyond Pop Art's exploration of mass production and over popularization. Perhaps the intimacy of the scene derives from Warhol's own nostalgia for the work; born into a Ruthenian Catholic family, Warhol grew up in a religious home where a reproduction of da Vinci's The Last Supper graced his family's kitchen wall. With both aesthetic and sentimental ties to the image, it is little wonder that Warhol's obsession with his Last Supper cycle preoccupied the last year of his life.
Andy Warhol died prematurely at the age of 58 in February 1987 following a gall bladder surgery. His series based on The Last Supper was the last he was ever to paint.
Circa 1986
Silkscreen: 45" high x 47" wide
Frame: 57" high x 59" wide
Exhibited:
The World of da Vinci, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, California, May 24, 2019 – September 8, 2019
References:
Andy Warhol's Last Supper, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, 2019, by R. Swan, B. Kinch and C. Stewart, p. 101 (illustrated)
Provenance:
Alexandre Iolas
Private collection, United States
1928-1987 | American
Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus
Features stamp of Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board Inc., number 102.1110 (en verso)
Silkscreen on paper mounted on canvas
Easily recognizable as one of the most famous and influential artists of the modern era, Andy Warhol was the most prominent member of the Pop Art movement that dominated the art scene in the mid-20th century. He was the quintessential artist of his time and place, elevating popular and commercial culture to the realms of high art. His distinctive photographic silkscreen printing is immediately recognizable, and the present example is a truly exceptional example of the art form.
Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus is part of the final series of Warhol's illustrious career, his famed Last Supper series. The body of work was commissioned by his friend and art dealer, Alexandre Iolas, who challenged Warhol to create a series of works based on Leonardo da Vinci's great masterpiece The Last Supper. The series would be shown at an exhibition in Milan at the Palazzo Stelline, which was across the street from da Vinci's mural in the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie. The art critic Arthur Danto describes the show, "When [Warhol’s] Last Supper was displayed in Milan, in a kind of citywide two-man show with Leonardo, 30,000 people flocked to see it, hardly any of whom went to see the ‘other’ Last Supper... When the final multivolume Popular History of Art is published, ours will be the Age of Warhol – an unlikely giant, but a giant nonetheless.”
Warhol's Last Supper cycle encompassed two distinctive series. The first included hand-painted works based on a line drawing, to which the Museum of Modern Art's The Last Supper and the Andy Warhol Museum's The Last Supper / Be Somebody with a Body belong. The second, and arguably the more important, series included silkscreens such as the present work, which Warhol derived from a black and white photograph of a widely circulated 19th-century engraving.
While the majority of his Last Supper silkscreens reproduce the image of the entire mural, Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus is among the rare detail studies that are included in the series. Unlike its unabridged counterparts, the work offers a fascinating character study that pulls the viewer into the drama and intimacy of the original work. This particular composition sheds light on the relationship between Jesus and John, physically separated by an inverted triangle of negative space, yet still compellingly intimate in their positioning. Warhol has ingeniously highlighted the connection between the two figures by muting the architectural features behind them, enhancing the psychological impact of the scene. The figure of the traitorous Peter peeks in from the left as an inescapable reminder of the fate that awaits them all.
Unlike many of his other serialized works of soup cans and Marilyns, Warhol's Last Supper Detail: Peter, John and Jesus has an emotional impact that elevates it beyond Pop Art's exploration of mass production and over popularization. Perhaps the intimacy of the scene derives from Warhol's own nostalgia for the work; born into a Ruthenian Catholic family, Warhol grew up in a religious home where a reproduction of da Vinci's The Last Supper graced his family's kitchen wall. With both aesthetic and sentimental ties to the image, it is little wonder that Warhol's obsession with his Last Supper cycle preoccupied the last year of his life.
Andy Warhol died prematurely at the age of 58 in February 1987 following a gall bladder surgery. His series based on The Last Supper was the last he was ever to paint.
Circa 1986
Silkscreen: 45" high x 47" wide
Frame: 57" high x 59" wide
Exhibited:
The World of da Vinci, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, California, May 24, 2019 – September 8, 2019
References:
Andy Warhol's Last Supper, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, 2019, by R. Swan, B. Kinch and C. Stewart, p. 101 (illustrated)
Provenance:
Alexandre Iolas
Private collection, United States
Read Less
Specifications
| Maker: | Warhol, Andy |
| Period: | 1919-Present |
| Origin: | America |
| Type: | Paintings |
| Style: | Postmodernism |
| Depth: | 3.5 in. (8.89 cm) |
| Width: | 59.13 in. (150.18 cm) |
| Height: | 57.13 in. (145.1 cm) |
| Canvas Width: | 46.280 in. (117.55 cm) |
| Canvas Height: | 43.250 in. (109.86 cm) |
Buy With Confidence
For over a century, we've placed important art, rare jewels and exceptional objects with more than 14,000 collectors worldwide, and have been recognized by trusted publications including Robb Report, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and more.
On Approval
Examine select works in person before you commit
125% Guarantee
Full credit plus 5% annual appreciation for five years
Trusted Expertise
Over two centuries of combined experience across our specialists
