Andy Warhol Martha Graham Portfolio (F & S II.387-389) For Sale

Martha Graham is a portfolio of three screenprints executed in 1986, depicting a series of dance poses performed by one of the most famous American dancers. Dynamic and elegant, the prints were published to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Martha Graham Centre of Contemporary Dance and pay tribute to the woman who changed modern dance.  

Warhol reappropriates some of Graham’s most famous choreography, and is able to capture the drama of movement and clothing with a sculptural quality: colouring the works on a dark background and emphasising the creases in her dress which flys away from the body (Letters to the World), the image has dimension and weight. In contrast to the flight of Letters to the World, The Lamentation centers around a ballet that is performed in the seated position, and Warhol’s purple articulation create a haunting and arresting image.  

Warhol had also created a portfolio for Merce Cunningham to raise funds for his dance school in 1974; it seems that for the artist, dance, by its expressiveness, provided fertile material for modern and contemporary art. Certainly dancers who pushed boundaries, such as Graham, the first dancer to perform at the White house, has become a historical icon.