Andy Warhol

Alexandre Iolas

1972

© 2023 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by DACS, London

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Not on display

Artist: Andy Warhol 1928–1987
Medium: Acrylic paint and silkscreen on 2 canvases
Dimensions: Support: 1017 × 1017 × 29 mm
support: 1017 × 1017 × 27 mm
frame (each): 1097 × 1088 × 70 mm
Collection: ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland
Acquisition: ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
Reference: AR00230

Online caption

Alexandre Iolas, Warhol’s friend and New York gallery owner, gave him his very first solo exhibition in the summer of 1952 (‘Andy Warhol – Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote’). In this portrait-diptych Warhol has deliberately smudged the screenprinted images on both canvases so that Iolas seems little more than a ghost peering vulnerably through the blurred marks. Following the success he achieved in the 1960s, Warhol developed friendships with several other art dealers including Bruno Bischofberger, Thomas Ammann, Leo Castelli and Ivan Karp. In the 1970s he painted a series of their portraits.