ANNIVERSARY OF APOLLO 11 AND ANDY WARHOL'S MOONWALK
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ANDY WARHOL 1928 – 1987 MOONWALK th
20 July 2019, marks the 50 anniversary of first humans landing on the moon, as part of NASA’s Apollo 11 Lunar Mission. An important event of the Post-War era initially th captured on camera and broadcast worldwide on 20 July 1969, has since been celebrated as the defining moment of the Twentieth Century. Firmly established as a leading artist of the Pop art movement and an international celebrity, Warhol is best known for appropriating images from popular culture. His historic representation of Moonwalk, remains as relevant and iconic as the moon landing itself. Completed almost two decades after the Apollo 11 mission, Andy Warhol’s Moonwalk was conceived as a result of the NASA Art Program which was created in 1961, just four years after the agency’s establishment. NASA Administrator James Webb expressed interest in creating an art program to commemorate both past and future events capturing the emotions of explorations, in a way in which history could look back and appreciate all that the agency achieved. The Moonwalk prints were initially intended to be part of a portfolio entitled “Works on the TV” that would depict important images from the history of television in America, including “I Love Lucy”, Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The image shown by the prints however never appeared on television despite Warhol intending them to form part a television portfolio. The Moonwalk was the only composition from the series that was printed due to Warhol’s untimely death months later. In creating his famous work, Warhol used a combination of two photographs taken by Neil Armstrong of Buzz Aldrin Junior. The first image is the photo where Buzz Aldrin salutes the US flag on the moon, landing site of Apollo 11, June 1969. The second photo shows Buzz Aldrin Junior as illustrated. Fifty years later, as the world gets ready to celebrate this extraordinary achievement of mankind, in Moonwalk, we can only acknowledge Warhol’s genius in eternalising this remarkable feet in such a seminal depiction.
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Buzz Aldrin salutes the US flag on the Moon, landing site of Apollo 11, June 1969 Photograph by Neil Armstrong. Detail from photo AS11-40 from the NASA’s Apollo 11 image library.
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Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, with Neil Armstrong and part of the Lunda Module “Eagle” reflected in Aldrin’s visor. Photo AS11-40 from the NASA’s Apollo 11 image library.
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ANDY WARHOL 1928-1987 Moonwalk, 1987 Complete portfolio of two screenprints on Lenox Museum Board 38 x 38 inches (96.5 x 96.5 cm) Edition: 160, 31 AP, 5 PP, 5 EP, 66 TP not in portfolios This edition: 34/160 Signed with a printed signature and numbered in pencil lower right, also numbered in pencil and signed in pencil on verso by the executor of The Estate of Andy Warhol, the publisher, and the printer on a stamped certificate of authenticity Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New york Publisher: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., New York Catalogue Raisonné: Feldman & Schellmann II.404-II.405 Based on Andy Warhol’s composite of two NASA photographs taken by Neil Armstrong of Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin, Jr. walking on the moon for the first time in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission. Posthumously stamped in black on verso, Certificate of Authenticity Moonwalk © Andy Warhol 1987 We the undersigned hereby certify this to be an original Andy Warhol work of art bearing a stamped signature of the artist Print #: Frederick Hughes Executor Andy Warhol Estate Rupert Jasen Smith Master Printer Ronald Fedlman Fine Arts, Inc. Publisher. Bears the printer’s chop mark and publisher’s chop mark. NOTES: Warhol’s Catalogue Raisonne catalogues works released in limited editions which are usually signed and numbered. Prints completed but unsigned at the time of Warhol’s death bear a stamped certificate of authenticity on the verso with a signature of the executor of the Estate of Andy Warhol, the publisher, and the printer. These include Wayne Gretzky (#99) trial proof edition prints (IIB.306), Frolunda Hockey Player trial proof edition prints (II.B 366), Beethoven (II.390-393), Hans Christian Andersen (II.394-401), and Moonwalk (II.404-405). The Shadow (II.269A), Red Lenin (II.403), and Camouflage (II.406-413) are only signed by the executor of The Estate of Andy Warhol. All are numbered. There are also signed or signed and dedicated prints outside of the edition.
COSKUN | ONLINE www.coskunfineart.com
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ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987) Moonwalk, 1987 From the portfolio of two screenprints on Lenox Museum Board 38 x 38 inches (96.5 x 96.5 cm) Edition: 160, 31 AP, 5 PP, 5 EP, 66 individual TP not in portfolios Signed with a printed signature and numbered in pencil lower right, also numbered in pencil and signed in pencil on verso by the executor of The Estate of Andy Warhol, the publisher, and the printer on a stamped certificate of authenticity Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New York Publisher: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., New York LITERATURE: Feldman & Schellmann II.405 NOTES: Based on Andy Warhol’s composite of two NASA photographs taken by Neil Armstrong of Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin, Jr. walking on the moon for the first time in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission. Posthumously stamped in black on verso, Certificate of Authenticity Moonwalk © Andy Warhol 1987 We the undersigned hereby certify this to be an original Andy Warhol work of art bearing a stamped signature of the artist Print #: Frederick Hughes Executor Andy Warhol Estate Rupert Jasen Smith Master Printer Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc. Publisher. Bears the printer’s chop mark and publisher’s chop mark. Warhol’s Catalogue Raisonne records works released in limited editions which are usually signed and numbered. Prints completed but unsigned at the time of Warhol’s death bear a stamped certificate of authenticity on the verso with a signature of the executor of the Estate of Andy Warhol, the publisher, and the printer. These include Wayne Gretzky (#99) trial proof edition prints (IIB.306), Frolunda Hockey Player trial proof edition prints (II.B 366), Beethoven (II.390-393), Hans Christian Andersen (II.394-401), and Moonwalk (II.404-405). The Shadow (II.269A), Red Lenin (II.403), and Camouflage (II.406-413) are only signed by the executor of The Estate of Andy Warhol. All are numbered. There are also signed or signed and dedicated prints outside of the edition.
COSKUN | ONLINE www.coskunfineart.com
COSKUN | ONLINE www.coskunfineart.com
COSKUN | ONLINE www.coskunfineart.com