Andy Warhol – Mao

Mao, 1972
Feldman & Schellmann II.95

• Artist: Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987)
• Medium: Screenprint in colours on Beckett High White wove paper
• Dimensions (sheet): 914 × 914 mm (36 × 36 in)
• Edition: Edition of 250
• Signature: Signed in ball-point pen and stamp-numbered verso 
• Printer: Styria Studio, Inc.
• Publisher: Co-published by Castelli Graphics and Multiples, Inc., New York
• Stamps: Artist's and printer's copyright ink stamps verso 

Mao is a screenprint in colours on Beckett High White wove paper, executed in 1972 by Andy Warhol — the defining figure of American Pop Art and one of the most celebrated and historically significant artists of the twentieth century — signed in ball-point pen and stamp-numbered verso from the edition of 250, printed by Styria Studio, Inc., and co-published by Castelli Graphics and Multiples, Inc., New York, bearing the artist's and printer's copyright ink stamps verso, presented as the full sheet and framed, catalogued as Feldman & Schellmann II.95. The work carries a distinguished provenance from Tolarno Galleries in Melbourne, with their label verso, acquired by the present owner directly from the gallery.

Andy Warhol's Mao series stands as one of the most historically significant, politically charged, and instantly recognizable bodies of work in his entire printed oeuvre. Executed in 1972, the series was prompted in large part by President Nixon's highly publicized visit to China that February — a moment of genuine diplomatic rupture that suddenly placed the image of Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong at the center of Western media attention. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao's portrait had become one of the most reproduced and visually saturated images in the world, omnipresent across Chinese propaganda on a scale with few historical precedents. Warhol's appropriation of this image — applying his signature silkscreen process and characteristic chromatic interventions to a portrait already defined by mass reproduction — produced one of the most conceptually precise meditations on celebrity, power, and image saturation in his entire career, drawing a direct and pointed line between the cult of personality surrounding a twentieth-century political leader and the mechanisms of fame that Warhol had spent his career dissecting in the context of Hollywood stars and consumer products.

At 914 × 914 mm, the square format gives the composition a monumental and confrontational physical presence entirely appropriate to its subject. Printed by Styria Studio — a printer of exceptional technical accomplishment — and co-published by Castelli Graphics and Multiples, Inc., two of the most significant print publishers in 1970s New York, this impression carries a production and publication history of the highest distinction. The provenance from Tolarno Galleries in Melbourne — one of Australia's most historically significant contemporary art galleries — adds a further dimension of documented and traceable ownership history.

The work is in very good condition

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