Andy Warhol Eric Emerson (Chelsea Girls) (F & S II.287) For Sale

Eric Emerson (Chelsea Girls) is a screenprint published by the artist in 1982, depicting musician and muse of Warhol’s films Eric Emerson. The screenprint appropriates a frame from the artist’s film Chelsea Girls in neon, and is manipulated in a style typical of Warhol’s: the image is repeated and half repeated, and fragmented in different colours. The work is significant as it was produced to commemorate the new Anthology Film archives, a museum that specialised in avant-garde film. Warhol was known for his contributions to avant-garde film and thus this was a cause that has personal importance to the artist. 

Chelsea Girls is arguably Warhol’s best known and most commercially successful film, following a group of Warhol’s ‘superstars’ - New York friends of the artist, around the city and shot at the Hotel Chelsea. Though Nico had starred in the film – Warhol’s subject of Eric is an interesting one as the star had died  some time earlier in 1975 at the age of 29. This screenprint can be seen to honor Eric’s memory for the Film archive, as well as linking to the artist’s fascination with icons who had passed away in tragic circumstances such as Marilyn Monroe and John F Kennedy.