This fantastic, medium-size (26 x 22 in) Mao (1973; 2328) is up for auction on May 15th at Christie's (estimate: $3-4 million).
The brief (4-paragraph) overview in the auction catalog of the "historical importance" of the Mao paintings is worth reading if you would like to learn more about Warhol's work. [Of course, the book I am working on will be a more comprehensive guide!]
A couple of excerpts:
- Marking the historic thawing of relations between the United States and China, Warhol's Mao taps into the political and cultural zeitgeist of the 1970s. Executed the year after President Nixon's 1972 diplomatic visit to China, this painting demonstrates Warhol's uncanny ability to examine the nature of celebrity and take the pulse of the national psyche.
- Rendering Mao in his uncompromising palette of vibrant colors, Warhol gesturally brushed sweeps of 'Communist Red' to denote the Chairman's trademark jacket. In doing so, Warhol decontaminates an image that had become a symbol of fear, rendering it inoffensive by highlighting its ubiquitous nature. By taking Mao, the great anti-capitalist symbol and turning him into a Warhol icon, the artist has taken the political figure's strategy of using visual ubiquity to maintain order and turned it on its head, ultimately presenting him as the ultimate commodity of Pop.
