Post-War & Contemporary Art

Provenance:

The Estate of Andy Warhol

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., New York 

Sold: Christie's, New York, 2014

Purchased from the above by a Private Collection

Exhibited:

New York, New York, 56 Henry Street, Andy Warhol: Nudes, January 9 – February 23, 2025 

Literature:

Linda Nochlin, Andy Warhol, and John Cheim. Andy Warhol Nudes. Robert Miller Gallery. Woodstock, New York, Overlook Press, 1995. 

Lot note:

While Andy Warhol is best known for his vibrant pop art silkscreens and celebrity portraits, his lesser-known graphite drawings of nude male models, such as Nude Male Model and Male Nude, reveal a more intimate and contemplative side of his oeuvre. Made primarily in the 1950s, before his rise to Pop Art fame, these works demonstrate Warhol's exceptional draftsmanship and his early exploration of themes that would persist throughout his career. 

In both Male Nude and Male Nude Model, Warhol's technical skill with traditional media, featuring delicate line work and subtle tonalities that capture both the physical form and psychological presence of his subjects. Often depicting young men in relaxed pose–an homage to the iconic contrapposto pose rooted in canonical works of art from antiquity–rendered with a sensitivity that contrasts sharply with the mechanical reproduction techniques he would later embrace. The intimacy of the medium—pencil on paper—allows for a direct connection between artist and subject that feels completely vulnerable. 

Indeed, these works reflect Warhol's personal aesthetic sensibilities and his fascination with male beauty–themes that would resurface in his subsequent photography and film work. Unlike his commercial illustrations from the same period, these nude studies feel deeply personal, akin to visual diary entries that document private moments and relationships.

Both Nude Male Model and Male Nude serve as a key bridge between Warhol's early commercial work and his later pop art innovations, demonstrating that beneath the cool, detached persona he would cultivate and harness, there remained an artist capable of profound intimacy and technical mastery.