ANDY WARHOL & PIETRO PSAIER

SUBJECT: Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli

MEDIUM: Screenprint on Canvas

YEAR: 1980

SIGNED: Andy Warhol (unverified, see details below)

ANDY WARHOL FACTORY STAMP TO VERSO...

hand written....ARTIST PROOF ‘80’

As of 2012, the Andy Warhol Authentication Board, Inc. has been dissolved thus making it very hard to verify the ANDY WARHOL signature, however this painting along with a collection of Pietro Psaiers with Andy Warhol signatures was acquired from a deceased estate which housed many many other fine art examples.

The Warhol studio in New York (known as The Factory 1962-84) was a hang-out for other drug influenced artists, many of whom produced works inspired by Warhol, many of which Warhol signed.

It is likely that this painting involved Pietro Psaier, the Italian born artist who died in the 2004 Sri Lankan Tsunami... if verified that the signature is in fact that of Andy Warhol then who knows what this piece could be worth?

Psaier’s psychiatrist Carlos Langelaan Alvarez, based in Madrid, treated Psaier between 1979 and 1992. He described Psaier as ‘an accomplished artist’ suffering from ‘drug psychosis’. In 1983 he recalls Psaier introducing him to Warhol while Warhol was exhibiting at the Fernando Vijande Gallery in Madrid. He further confirmed ‘There is no doubt that Pietro Psaier knew Andy Warhol and it is my belief that Warhol was involved in many of his artworks’.

SIZE:
123 cms Wide x 154 cms High

(4 feet wide x 5 feet high)

N.B (details of an ‘artists proof’)

Artist's proof is an impression of a print taken in the printmaking process to see the current printing state of a plate while the plate, stone or woodblock is being worked on by the artist. A proof may show a clearly incomplete image, often called a working proof or trial impression, but in modern practice it is usually used to describe an impression of the finished work that is identical to the numbered copies.

Art historians, curators, and collectors view working proofs as especially desirable because of their rarity, the insight they may give into the progress of the work, and because they were sure to have belonged to the artist. Especially in the case of dead artists, they can be the only evidence of the artist's incremental development of an image, something not usually available with drawings, paintings, or sculpture. Some may be hand signed in the border and labeled "Epreuve D'Artiste" which means Artist's Proof, which also increases its value.

Collectors also usually prefer final artist's proofs even when they are identical to the main edition; if nothing else the print may have been presented to a friend by the artist. An artist's proof has special value because of its extra rarity and its possible differences from the "standard" print, factors that are often reflected in its price.

CONDITION REPORT:


STRETCHER:

1: overall superb original condition and is hexkey built (see images)


ARTWORK:

1: Canvas is of a very heavy quality, some cotton frays to the unpainted outer edges of the of the canvas.

2: Minor canvas ripples to the edges, mostly lower left.

3: All in all in good condition
(minor dust marks present).


OTHER GENUINE WORKS AVAILABLE:

Pietro Psaier / Andy Warhol - Prison

Pietro Psaier - Shocker electric chair

Pietro Psaier - Campbell Soup

Pietro Psaier / Andy Warhol - Humphrey Bogart

Pietro Psaier - Ramones - Womb to Tomb

Pietro Psaier - Jimmy Hendricks

Peter Max - God Bless America III

Peter Max - Land of the Free-Home of the Brave II