Letter To The World (The Kick) (F. & S. II.389)
Letter To The World (The Kick) (F. & S. II.389)
Signed Print
Andy Warhol
£30,000-£45,000Value Indicator
$60,000-$90,000 Value Indicator
$60,000-$80,000 Value Indicator
¥290,000-¥440,000 Value Indicator
€35,000-€50,000 Value Indicator
$320,000-$480,000 Value Indicator
¥5,960,000-¥8,940,000 Value Indicator
$40,000-$60,000 Value Indicator
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91 x 91cm, Edition of 100, Screenprint
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
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Meaning & Analysis
The screen print Letter to the World (The Kick) (F. & S. II.389), from the Martha Graham series (1986), is one of three prints by Andy Warhol that depicts the distinguished dancer Martha Graham. This is a lively composition showing Graham performing one of her choreographic motifs from the ballet Letter to the World, with her body tilted forwards and her leg in the air.
Recalled as the ‘Picasso of dance’, Graham was one of the most prolific dancers and choreographers of the 20th century and influenced dance worldwide with her pioneering physical vocabulary. Letter to the World (The Kick) is a celebratory image of Graham’s legacy that captures the dancer’s unparalleled skill in expressing emotion through movement. Warhol used a photograph of Graham taken by Barbara Morgan in 1940 as his source material for the print, that was widely published at the time. The appropriation of this famous photograph is synonymous with the aims of the Pop Art Movement and Warhol’s depiction of famous icons through the screen printing method.
Warhol characteristically immortalises Graham’s fame into a screen print of vivid colours, just as he had done in earlier works of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley. Using the screen print method, Warhol depicts Graham in radiant colours layered against a dark background, to give the figure an illuminated presence as though she were on a lit stage. Loose, organic lines accentuate the flowing fabric of the dress and Grahams free and effortless bodily movements.
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.
