Warhol, Chanel (Yellow Blue)

1997

This exquisite silkscreen by Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997), titled Sandwich and Soda, originates from the landmark 1964 folio X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters). Published by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, and printed by Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., North Haven, in Sandwich and Soda, Lichtenstein translates his signature Pop Art vocabulary—bold outlines, flat commercial color, and Ben-Day dot structure—into a crisp, iconic composition that reimagines everyday consumer imagery with graphic intensity and conceptual clarity. Executed as a silkscreen on Mylar over Mohawk Superfine Bristol paper, this work measures 20 x 24 inches. Unsigned and unnumbered as issued. Printed by Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., North Haven, one of the most capable American screenprinting ateliers of the mid-20th century. Artwork Details: Artist: Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997) Title: Sandwich and Soda, from X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), 1964 Medium: Silkscreen on Mylar over Mohawk Superfine Bristol paper Dimensions: 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 60.96 cm) Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered as issued Date: 1964 Publisher: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford Printer: Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., North Haven Edition: D Catalogue raisonne reference: Corlett, Mary Lee, and Roy Lichtenstein. The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonne 1948–1997. 2nd rev. ed., Hudson Hills Press in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Distributed in the U.S. by National Book Network, 2002, No. 35. Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium Provenance: From the 1964 folio X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), published by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford Notes: Excerpted from the folio, This portfolio was commissioned and printed in an attempt to extend as much of the visual impact as possible of ten artists to paper and to make these prints available to collectors who might not otherwise have such a vivid slice of the artist. The dry surface of screening seemed to be most apt to translate the effect of their painting, both the flatness which is the unifying bond between the ten, and the insistance of paint on the surface of canvas so like the visible heft of ink on paper here. Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr., Curator of Printings. About the Publication: X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), published in 1964 by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, stands as one of the most ambitious and influential printmaking endeavors of postwar American art. Conceived under the direction of curator Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr., the project sought to capture and translate the defining visual languages of ten leading American painters of the era—Stuart Davis, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Adolph Gottlieb, George Ortman, Larry Poons, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein—into original silkscreens. Each artwork was created as an autonomous work that embodied the formal, chromatic, and conceptual principles of its respective artist. The choice of silkscreen printing, executed by Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., was central to the portfolio’s purpose: its dry, matte surface and capacity for crisp, saturated color allowed for a faithful translation of the painters’ flatness, surface tension, optical effects, and graphic precision. Organized and published by a major American museum at a moment of seismic change in contemporary art, X + X marked a turning point in institutional engagement with editioned works, representing one of the first concerted efforts by a museum to commission an ensemble of original graphics from the leading figures of its time. The portfolio captured the pulse of 1960s American painting—from Hard-Edge abstraction to Pop, Op, and Color Field—offering both a curated snapshot of artistic innovation and an accessible format that expanded the audience for contemporary art. Today, X + X is widely regarded as a landmark in American printmaking, celebrated for its curatorial vision, technical accomplishment, and its role in defining the dialogue between museum patronage and the burgeoning print culture of the 1960s. About the Artist: Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997) was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose revolutionary elevation of comic-book graphics, Ben-Day dots, commercial illustration, and mass-media visual language into the realm of fine art made him one of the founding giants of Pop Art, drawing on the breakthroughs of Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray to synthesize Cubist fragmentation, Surrealist wit, Modernist experimentation, and Duchampian conceptualism into an unmistakable style defined by bold outlines, flat industrial color, graphic reduction, and the now-iconic Ben-Day dot technique; emerging in the 1960s alongside Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein shifted American art away from Abstract Expressionism toward a cool, analytical investigation of consumer culture, mass reproduction, advertising, and the manufactured image, creating paintings, prints, sculptures, and monumental public works that reimagined romance comics, war scenes, cartoons, brushstroke parodies, landscapes, and art-historical citations while offering a humorous yet incisive commentary on how images shape contemporary life; his influence is immense, shaping artists such as Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Damien Hirst, Julian Opie, KAWS, Banksy, and numerous contemporary painters, designers, fashion houses, and digital creators, while his works are held in major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art, Tate, Centre Pompidou, SFMOMA, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and LACMA, with his highest auction record achieved when Nurse (1964) sold for 95,365,000 USD at Christie's New York on November 9, 2015. Roy Lichtenstein silkscreen...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Nuit de Noel (Christmas Night), from Verve, Revue Artistique et Litteraire, Vol. IX, No. 35–36, originates from the 1958 issue published by Editions de la revue Verve, Paris, under the direction of Teriade, Editeur, Paris, and printed by Mourlot Freres, Paris, 1958. Created during Matisse’s final period, Nuit de Noel embodies his profound synthesis of form, color, and spirituality. The composition, evoking the calm radiance of the nativity, expresses a sense of universal harmony through luminous shapes and vibrant contrasts. This piece exemplifies Matisse’s late cut-out technique, where visual rhythm and color convey the serenity and joy of life and faith. Executed as a lithograph on velin du Marais paper, this work measures 14 x 10.5 inches. Unsigned and unnumbered as issued. The edition exemplifies the superb craftsmanship of the Mourlot Freres atelier, faithfully capturing the coloristic richness and compositional rhythm of Matisse’s late paper cut-outs. Artwork Details: Artist: After Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Title: Nuit de Noel (Christmas Night), from Verve, Revue Artistique et Litteraire, Vol. IX, No. 35–36, 1958 Medium: Lithograph on velin du Marais paper Dimensions: 14 x 10.5 inches Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered as issued Date: 1958 Publisher: Editions de la revue Verve, Paris, under the direction of Teriade, Editeur, Paris Printer: Mourlot Freres, Paris Catalogue raisonne reference: Duthuit, Claude. Henri Matisse: Catalogue raisonne des ouvrages illustres. Editions Claude Duthuit, Paris, 1988, illustration 139 Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium Provenance: From Verve, Revue Artistique et Litteraire, Vol. IX, No. 35–36, published by Editions de la revue Verve, Paris, 1958 Notes: Excerpted from the publication, Verve, Revue Artistique et Litteraire, Vol. IX, No. 35–36, published under the direction of Teriade, Editeur, Paris, and printed by Mourlot Freres, Paris, 1958. This double issue of Verve was entirely devoted to the final works of Henri Matisse, composed of his celebrated gouache cut-outs, which the artist called “painting with scissors.” Completed shortly before his death, this issue represents the culmination of Matisse’s lifelong exploration of color, rhythm, and spiritual joy through the simplest means of expression. About the Publication: Verve, Revue Artistique et Litteraire was one of the most influential art periodicals of the 20th century, founded in Paris in 1937 by the visionary Greek-born publisher Teriade (Stratis Eleftheriades). Conceived as a synthesis of art and literature, Verve brought together the greatest modern artists and writers of its time—Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Georges Braque, Joan Miro, Fernand Leger, and others—alongside poets and philosophers such as Paul Eluard, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Each issue was a work of art in itself, luxuriously printed by master lithographers such as Mourlot Freres and produced in collaboration with leading typographers and designers. Verve became a platform for avant-garde creativity, publishing original lithographs and essays that reflected the evolving spirit of modernism. Matisse collaborated closely with Teriade from the magazine’s inception, producing some of its most iconic issues, including those devoted to his paper cut-outs. The final Verve issue of 1958, which featured La Tristesse du Roi, the Nu Bleu series, and Nuit de Noel, stands as a testament to Matisse’s enduring genius and to the publication’s legacy as the definitive meeting of art, poetry, and printing craftsmanship in 20th-century France. About the Artist: Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was a French painter, sculptor, draughtsman, and printmaker whose revolutionary vision redefined modern art through his daring use of color, line, and form. Celebrated as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Matisse led the Fauvist movement and devoted his life to the pursuit of balance, beauty, and emotional expression in visual art. His early works burst with vibrant hues and liberated brushwork, while his later “cut-out” compositions achieved a poetic simplicity that transformed the relationship between color and space. Deeply influenced by the work of Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Georges Seurat, as well as by the rhythmic patterns of Islamic art, Byzantine mosaics, and Japanese prints, Matisse forged a new visual language that celebrated joy, movement, and serenity. He was part of an extraordinary generation of artists who shaped the evolution of modernism, maintaining lifelong dialogue and friendly rivalry with contemporaries such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Andre Derain, Albert Marquet, and Raoul Dufy—peers who, like him, sought to expand the expressive potential of color and composition. Matisse’s influence extended across generations, inspiring modern and contemporary masters including Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray, each of whom drew upon his fearless experimentation and refined visual harmony. His paintings, sculptures, and works on paper are held in the most prestigious museums in the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou, the Tate, and the Hermitage Museum, where his art continues to symbolize the essence of creativity and human emotion. The highest price ever paid for a Henri Matisse artwork is approximately $80.8 million USD, achieved in 2018 at Christie’s New York for Odalisque couchee aux magnolias (1923). Henri Matisse Nuit de Noel...