As the world awaits Edvard Munch’s Original to be sold in New York in May
Sotheby’s London, biannual sale of Old Master, Modern and Contemporary Prints held on Thursday, 29 March 2012, is highlighting Andy Warhol’s rare version of “The Scream (After Munch). The print is illustrated on the cover of the sale showing just how important this work is rated. Warhol’s silkscreen was produced in 1984, utilising a unique combination of colours that are exceptionally vibrant. He than stamped his own brand of creativity, on this established and iconic image. Warhol has appropriated the image, as his own intellectual property, a process which is well documented in his output. In this print Warhol has taken the subject to its obvious conclusion, as an image that is firstly, one of the most instantly recognisable images in both art historical terms and as a popular culture favourite. It is now viewed within the context of the Pop art idiom, with exploration of famous images from the history of art, Munch’s seminal masterpiece was the perfect vehicle for Warhol’s vision. Commissioned as an edition print, which was never published, Warhol’s The Scream (After Munch) exists only in unique colour variants. Warhol used Munch’s very rare lithograph of The Scream as his primary source. The present version is estimated at £150,000-200,000.
Sotheby’s New York is also set to break all auction records when one (there are four versions) of the original masterpiece’s by Munch goes under the hammer in May, This last privately owned rendition of Edvard Munch’s painting will be sold in New York, on 2 May 2012. It is expected to fetch $80m or more and this could be the moment when all existing records for a painting are broken. This is the first time the 1895 pastel on paper will be offered, in a public sale. The pastel is currently owned by the Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen a director of the Olsen shipping dynasty. It is said to have been in the family for several generations and was one of many Munch masterpieces, collected by Petter Olsen’s father who acquired and generously loaned them to museums internationally.