3650 - ANDY WARHOL

ANDY WARHOL (Pittsburgh 1928–1987 New York City) Neuschwanstein. 1987. Color screenprint. TP, one of 25 trial proofs in unique color combinations, outside the edition of 100. Signed in pencil lower left in the image: Andy Warhol. Verso with the artist’s copyright stamp. Image 89.2 × 68.8 cm on Arches 88 wove paper, 109.5 × 77.2 cm. Published by Editions Schellmann, Munich/New York City, and Sabine Knust, Munich. Printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York City (with blindstamp). Provenance: - Galerie Sabine Knust – Maximilian Verlag, Munich. - Private collection, Germany, acquired from the above gallery in 2000. Exhibited: Feldmann/Schellmann, no. IIB.372. When Andy Warhol chose Neuschwanstein Castle as the subject of one of his last printmaking projects, two seemingly disparate visual worlds came together: the romantic, fantastical imagination of Bavaria’s King Ludwig II and the formally pared-down, vividly colored language of American Pop Art. Upon closer examination, however, a surprising affinity emerges. Though separated by more than a century, Ludwig II and Warhol shared a keen awareness of the power of carefully staged images. Beginning in 1869, Ludwig II commissioned a vision of a medieval knight’s castle near Hohenschwangau, inspired less by historical models than by his own idea of the Middle Ages. Drawing on Richard Wagner and medieval legends, he created a private retreat in which history was imagined rather than reconstructed. Just weeks after the king’s death, the castle opened to the public in 1886. What began as one man’s personal fantasy became an internationally familiar image: Neuschwanstein was transformed into a postcard subject, a tourist landmark, and a focus for romantic longing. The castle is also regarded as one of the inspirations for Walt Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty Castle,” which in turn helped shape the image of a fairy-tale castle around the world. It is precisely here that Neuschwanstein touches on a central principle of Warhol’s artistic practice. From the early 1960s onward, he drew on subjects already firmly embedded in the collective visual memory through their circulation in the media. For Warhol, Neuschwanstein Castle was therefore not merely a building, but a widely reproduced image imbued with cultural and historical associations. In the color silkscreen published in 1987, he superimposes drawn outlines and intense areas of color onto the photographic source. The castle remains instantly recognizable, yet its coloring is entirely divorced from its natural appearance. The print derives its distinctive effect from this interplay between recognition and transformation. The 25 trial proofs, produced alongside the regular edition of 100, occupy a special place within the edition. Each proof features its own unique color combination, offering a compelling counterpoint to a body of work so closely associated with serial reproduction. Variations in color give each print its own distinct character, even within the same printmaking process. Color is not merely a decorative element but fundamentally shapes how the subject is perceived. In this example, pink, violet, blue, black, white, and silver transform the familiar Alpine landscape into a deliberately artificial world of color. The fact that “Neuschwanstein” was created in 1987, the year of Warhol’s death, lends the work further art-historical significance. It is among his final printmaking projects and brings together themes that shaped his work for decades: the appropriation of familiar images, their circulation through mass media, and the relationship between repetition, variation, and individual artistic intervention. In the trial proofs, these tensions emerge with particular clarity. * The full tax is charged on this item marked *; that is, VAT is charged on the amount and will be refunded to purchasers who provide a validly stamped export declaration.