ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Grace Kelly198440 x 32 in.(101.6 x 81.28 cm) color screenprint
Provenance
Hamilton Selway Fine ArtPrivate Collection
Literature
Frayda Feldman & Jorg Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonne: 1962-1987, New York, 2003, no. II.305Price250,000
Andy Warhol’s Grace Kelly (1984) is a dazzling screenprint that immortalizes one of Hollywood’s most iconic stars, who later became Princess of Monaco. This impression, one of 30 artist’s proofs aside from the regular edition of 225, depicts Kelly with radiant canary yellow hair set against a turquoise ground. Her face, rendered through Warhol’s crisp silkscreened contours, is at once immediately recognizable and transformed into a bold graphic emblem.
The image is based on a film still from Fourteen Hours (1951), Kelly’s screen debut, which Warhol reimagines through his signature Pop sensibility. By isolating and intensifying her features with vibrant color contrasts, he heightens both the glamour of the actress and the constructed nature of celebrity imagery. The turquoise background vibrates against Kelly’s luminous hair, underscoring Warhol’s mastery of color as a tool of both allure and abstraction.
Created during a period when Warhol was revisiting the great icons of his earlier career, Grace Kelly encapsulates his fascination with beauty, fame, and cultural mythmaking. The work distills Kelly’s presence into a timeless symbol—simultaneously a celebration of her cinematic allure and a meditation on the transformation of star into legend.
The image is based on a film still from Fourteen Hours (1951), Kelly’s screen debut, which Warhol reimagines through his signature Pop sensibility. By isolating and intensifying her features with vibrant color contrasts, he heightens both the glamour of the actress and the constructed nature of celebrity imagery. The turquoise background vibrates against Kelly’s luminous hair, underscoring Warhol’s mastery of color as a tool of both allure and abstraction.
Created during a period when Warhol was revisiting the great icons of his earlier career, Grace Kelly encapsulates his fascination with beauty, fame, and cultural mythmaking. The work distills Kelly’s presence into a timeless symbol—simultaneously a celebration of her cinematic allure and a meditation on the transformation of star into legend.