Andy Warhol of the Month
Long-Sharp Gallery specializes in works on paper and photography by Andy Warhol. Each month our staff selects a drawing or photograph from our inventory that highlights something about Warhol’s life or interests and discusses it here.
Couple
Year: Circa 1956
Medium: Ink on paper
Size: 11 x 8.625 in (27.9 x 21.9 cm)
Provenance:
Estate of Andy Warhol (stamped)
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (stamped)
Long-Sharp Gallery
Authenticated by the Authentication Board of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (stamp on verso), Foundation archive number on verso in pencil, initialed by the person who entered the works into the Foundation archive.
Price on request
Andy Warhol’s brother John recalls Andy’s early desire to be a tap dancer. The first recording of Warhol’s interest in dance is his enrollment – as the only male, no less - in the Modern Dance Club at Carnegie Tech. That summer, in 1948, two of Warhol’s works (“I Like Dance” and “Dance in Black and White”) were chosen for inclusion in a juried show for the Associated Artist’s of Pittsburgh. [It was this inclusion that tipped off members of the dance club to Warhol’s talent, and relegated him to graphic design for the group instead of actually dancing.] In New York thereafter, he applied for a job as a commercial illustrator at Dance Magazine in 1951; he would contribute several drawings (including two covers) to the magazine.
When Warhol moved to New York City at the end of the 1940’s, New York was overflowing with musicians, dancers, and avant-garde performers. Warhol took inspiration from everything. For decades, he was a devoted attendee at theatre performances, concerts, and counterculture events. Works spanning the 1950s to the 1980s reflect this immersion in arts and music: when Warhol was not attending events with Martha Graham or working with Merce Cunningham on the set for his next performance, he was integrating what he’d learned from these dancers into his art.
Another inspiration to Warhol’s early drawings – especially those involving dance and theatre – was photographer Otto Fenn. The two met in 1951, and Warhol became a constant at Fenn’s photography studio, said to have attracted gay creative minds of New York in the 40s and 50s. Warhol helped Fenn with the backdrops for his photography shoots; Fenn’s photos became the foundations for many of Warhol’s early drawings [couples dancing – often in drag].
Warhol’s interest in and integration of dance into his art spanned decades. In the 1960s, when he encountered books published by the Dance Guild purporting to teach dance, Warhol transformed these instructions into his “Dance Diagram” paintings. These paintings (measuring 71.5 x 51.75 inches) were first exhibited at the Stable Gallery in New York in 1962, and were installed on the floor of the exhibition space.