Andy Warhol, notoriously obsessed by money, once famously said, 'Making money is art. And working is art. And good business is the best art.' In a show that epitomises this brash statement, London auction house Sotheby’s has, in 'The Art of Making Money', gathered a never-seen-before museum-quality collection of 21 artworks that celebrate the power and symbolism of the US dollar.
Unveiled to the public for the first time and estimated at a value of around £50 million, the haul includes the most important collection of Warhol 'dollar' paintings in private hands – the artist's seminal One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate) is among them, with an estimated value of £13–18 million alone.
Other highlights include Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s $, 2001, a glitzy dollar sign studded with shimmering white lights; and in Keith Haring's Untitled from 1982, the dollar symbol – turned into an icon of pop art by Warhol – is layered with new meaning and complexities by his socialist protégé, who, unlike Warhol, felt uneasy about the relationship between art and business.
Due to go under the hammer on 1 and 2 July 2015, the collection also includes pieces by Joseph Beuys, Arman, Scott Campbell, Francesco Clemente, Robert Silvers, Cildo Meireles, Ronnie Cutrone, Jin Wang, Liu Zheng and Gustave Buchet, who, just like Warhol, have all been seduced and inspired by the dollar and its mesmerising power.
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Watch Andy Warhol discuss his relationship with money and consumerism. Video courtesy of Sotheby's
At the heart of the collection lies the most important group of Andy Warhol 'dollar' paintings in private hands, led by the artist’s very first painting in the series, One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate) (pictured). Produced in 1962, the painting is the only one of Warhol’s dollars to have been painted entirely by hand and is valued at £13 – 18 million
Created only a few months after the hand-painted One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate), the Dollar Bills series was the very first to incorporate the artist’s trademark silkscreen process – a method that would come to revolutionise the course of 20th-century art. Pictured: Andy Warhol, Front and Back Dollar Bills, 1962–63
Notoriously obsessed by money, the dollar sign continued to inspire Warhol throughout his career. Pictured: Dollar Signs, 1981, est. £4.5 – 6.5 million
Unveiled to the public for the first time, the complete collection is estimated at a value of around £50 million. Pictured: Andy Warhol, Dollar Sign, 1981, est. £4–6 million
Other highlights inlcude Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s $, 2001 – a glitzy dollar sign studded with shimmering white lights…
… as well as Keith Haring's Untitled, 1982, which adds new layers of complexity to the symbol
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