Christie’s announced today that Warhol’s first Self Portrait will star in their New York May sales:
Painted in 1963-1964, Self-Portrait by Andy Warhol marks the first historic crafting of the artist’s iconic image in a photo booth, a radical concept of picture making that revolutionized art history. The four-panel masterpiece executed in four distinct variations of blue, features Warhol for the first time a new guise, that of the enigmatic superstar replete with silver hair, wayfarer sunglasses and a blank expression. It epitomizes Warhol’s desire to be a “machine” and is the perfect portrait of mass media and consumerism. Self-Portrait is a key highlight in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale in New York on May 11, 2011 and has an estimate of $20,000,000-30,000,000.