Andy Warhol: Siberian Tiger (F&S 297)
Andy Warhol: Siberian Tiger (F&S 297) framed
Andy Warhol
38 x 38 in.
Outside of the edition of 150
Authenticated. Stamped on verso by Andy Warhol Authentication Board "A132.122 "
Framed
Created in 1983, Siberian Tiger forms part of Andy Warhol’s Endangered Species portfolio, commissioned by the environmental advocates Ronald and Frayda Feldman. Published by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts and printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, the series comprises ten portraits of threatened animals. By applying the visual language previously associated with celebrities and public figures to the natural world, Warhol transformed each animal into an immediately recognisable contemporary icon.
The tiger’s head fills the square composition, confronting the viewer with an unwavering frontal gaze. Burnt orange and ochre describe its face, while passages of white, yellow, red and electric blue articulate the eyes, muzzle and striped fur. These colours are set against a dark green ground, producing a sharp contrast that separates the animal from any recognisable habitat. The close cropping and direct gaze recall the conventions of portrait photography, giving the tiger a powerful and individualised presence.
Warhol’s screenprinting process replaces naturalistic description with layered fields of colour and emphatic linear contours. Slight separations between the photographic image, drawn outlines and blocks of ink create a sense of movement across the surface, while the brilliant blue eyes provide the composition’s principal point of focus. Rather than presenting the tiger as a zoological specimen, Warhol renders it through the artificial colours and graphic immediacy of advertising and mass media.
Produced ten years after the passage of the United States Endangered Species Act, the portfolio reflects the growing environmental consciousness of the period. Warhol’s treatment is celebratory but also deliberately paradoxical: the animal acquires greater cultural visibility precisely because its survival is threatened. Siberian Tiger extends Warhol’s investigation of fame, reproduction and mortality beyond human celebrity, demonstrating how Pop Art’s mechanisms of recognition could be redirected towards ecological vulnerability.
A detailed condition report is available upon request.
Provenance
Sotheby's, New York, 2 November 2012acquired by Galerie Bartoux, Paris from the above sale
Private Collector, Paris, acquired from the above 2013
Andipa, London
Published by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., New York and printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York.