Name: Portraits Of The Artists (F. & S. II.17)
Brand: Andy Warhol
Rating: 5 (238 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Andy Warhol’s Portraits Of The Artists (F. & S. II.17) is estimated to be worth between £12,500 and £18,000. This signed screenprint, created in 1967, has shown consistent value growth and has an auction history of 24 total sales since its entry to the market on 18th December 2001. In the last 12 months, the average selling price was £12,329, with one piece sold. Over the past five years, the hammer price has ranged from £10,982 in March 2024 to £21,968 in April 2022. The average annual growth rate of this artwork is -5%. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 200.

Meaning & Analysis

Portraits of the Artist (F. & S. II.17) is a screen print by Andy Warhol from the Ten from Leo Castelli portfolio (1967), a set of multiples created by ten different artists that the famous gallerist Leo Castelli represented at the time. Castelli became involved in the Pop Art movement very early on and was famed for his combination of both critical and commercial success in the art world. Warhol was a key part of this elite group of artists that Castelli represented.

In this print Warhol depicts the portraits of himself alongside Robert Morris, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Poons, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella, Lee Bontecou, Donald Juddand Robert Rauschenberg. In his trademark repetitive style, Warhol has multiplied the portraits of each artist by ten, showing them in a square that measures 51 x 51 cm. Each portrait is rendered in a different vivid colour, producing a kaleidoscopic all-over composition. The print was originally produced on 3-D polystyrene boxes, each measuring approximately 5 x 5 cm and when held up to the light, the colours and portraits were magnified.

Characteristic of Warhol’s repetitive printing style, this print simplifies the form of the photographic portraits, creating a flattened pictorial surface. Distinct from other works in the collaborative series, Warhol employed his renowned, cynical humour and decided to take the series title quite literally by repeating the 10 artist’s portraits in 10 different colours.

Andy Warhol was a leading figure of the Pop Art movement and is often considered the father of Pop Art. Born in 1928, Warhol allowed cultural references of the 20th century to drive his work. From the depiction of glamorous public figures, such as Marilyn Monroe, to the everyday Campbell’s Soup Can, the artist challenged what was considered art by blurring the boundaries between high art and mass consumerism. Warhol's preferred screen printing technique further reiterated his obsession with mass culture, enabling art to be seen as somewhat of a commodity through the reproduced images in multiple colour ways.