Andy Warhol American, 1928-1987
Framed: 104.14 x 104.14 cm / 41" x 41" in
Conservation framed
Signed in pencil on verso by Frederick Hughes, executor of The Estate of Andy Warhol; numbered /80 on verso; copyright inkstamp of the artist verso; blindstamp of the printer, Rupert Jasen Smith, New York
Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New York
Publisher: Andy Warhol, New York
Camouflage (Pink) (1987) is one of eight screenprints comprising Warhol's Camouflage portfolio - the last major print project he completed before his death in February 1987. It is the final chapter of one of the most significant careers in the history of twentieth-century art, and carries with it the particular intensity of a last statement.
Inspired by his assistant Jay Shriver, who had been working with camouflage and mesh military cloth in his own work, Warhol decided to engage with the motif directly - translating a pattern designed for concealment into the language of Pop Art, where nothing is concealed and everything is spectacle. The result is one of his most formally radical and conceptually precise achievements. Where camouflage functions by dissolving the individual into the environment - the antithesis of celebrity, the antithesis of Warhol - his screenprints do the opposite: they make the pattern visible, decorative, and impossible to ignore.
The pink colourway is among the most arresting in the portfolio. The palette of hot pink, crimson, and vibrant orange transforms a utility pattern rooted in military function into something entirely at odds with its origins - a work of pure visual pleasure that simultaneously critiques and celebrates the imagery it appropriates. In choosing colours that would make any soldier instantly visible, Warhol renders the camouflage pattern useless and in doing so exposes the entire logic of concealment as just another design choice.
The series was produced with publisher Ronald Feldman Fine Arts and printer Rupert Jasen Smith, and comprises eight screenprints on Lenox Museum Board, each 38 × 38 inches. The standard edition of 80 was accompanied by 84 individual trial proofs. The impression is signed on verso by Frederick Hughes, executor of The Estate of Andy Warhol, and bears the blindstamp of printer Rupert Jasen Smith.
The complete Camouflage portfolio is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Provenance
Rupert Jasen Smith, New York (printer) Andy Warhol, New York (publisher)
Private Collection
Creed Gallery, Ascot
Exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York (complete portfolio of eight screenprints, accession no. 181.2000.1-8)Literature
Feldman, F. & Schellmann, J. Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987, 4th ed. New York: D.A.P., 2003, no. II.408- X
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