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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Warhol Dachshund, Continued


Continuing on with our "Warhol and Dachshunds" series, here's a piece which you probably haven't seen before, at least we haven't.  This work is currently on display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a part of their Warhol Dogs and Cats exhibit.  Excerpt from The Tartan:

The Dogs and Cats series is among Warhol’s lesser-known works. The eight silk-screened painting set features common house cats and dog breeds such as the Great Dane, West Highland Terrier, and Dachshund. The series began in 1976, when art collector Peter Brant commissioned Warhol to paint his Cocker Spaniel named Ginger. Warhol made two paintings of Ginger, as well as numerous drawings. Brant liked these works and encouraged Warhol to do a whole series of cat and dog drawings.
When viewed, a juxtaposition of eeriness and vibrant personality comes forth from the depicted pets. This eeriness is likely due to Warhol’s decision to use stuffed animals for his first cat and dog photos. He took this approach because of the difficulty he initially faced when staging the pets. The subsequent paintings Warhol completed were done from photographs of cats and dogs and, given his predisposition to work from photographs as an illustrator, it is easy to understand why the later pets are so vibrant and infused with personality.


The larger photo above looks to our untrained eye to be a different version of this piece, Portrait of Maurice, 1976.  This work was a commissioned portrait for Gabrielle Keiller.  Warhol worked from Polaroids of Maurice taken in his London home to create this image.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

while not always a gung-ho fan of Warhol's art...I'm now a dedicated fan of his dachshund art...I LOVE this!

Moira said...

ooh...I've never seen it. And I have been to the Warhol Museum. Great find, Rowdy and Joey.

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