Il December 2 Christie's will present Andy Warhol's iconic dollar sign (estimate: US$6.000.000 – 8.500.000) and another symbol: Yayoi Kusama's A-PUMPKIN- (US$1.200.000 – 2.000.000) for the contemporary art auction in Hong Kong.
Iconic works by the titans of Pop Art
- Yayoi Kusama and Andy Warhol are two giants of the postwar art movement; both were active in New York in the 60s and were familiar with each other's work, attending each other's exhibitions and mingling in the same crowd.
- Kusama recounted in her biopic Kusama—Infinity that Warhol attended her Gertrude Stein Gallery exhibition in 1963: “Andy Warhol came to the exhibition and said, 'Wow, great Yayoi! I love it so much. “That influenced him, and then he did a show. He covered the walls with pictures of a cow. When I saw it, I was surprised. Andy picked up what I did and copied it into his show. The exhibition he was referring to was Warhol's at the Leo Castelli Gallery 3 years later, where Warhol covered the gallery walls with a repeating image of a cow.
- Kusama's work was also deeply influenced by Warhol. Fame and commerce were integral to Warhol's identity as an artist, just as they played an important role in Kusama's approach to artistic creation.
- In 1982 Warhol presented a solo show called Dollar Signs at Castelli Gallery in New York, filling the space with paintings silkscreened with bright, layered dollar signs. Warhol appropriates an immediately recognizable symbol, remodeling it in the context of art.
- Around the same time, in 1981, Yayoi Kusama began revisiting the pumpkin subject in her work, transforming an everyday vegetable into a polka dot symbol imbued with personality and individuality.
Both artists were interested in the idea that symbols of popular culture were transformed and elevated through art. The dollar sign and pumpkin represent instantly recognizable subjects within each artist's respective work.
