NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announced the next global online-only auction in its popular series of sales devoted to original works by the legendary pop artist Andy Warhol. Sourced directly from the collection of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the June sale of Andy Warhol @ Christie’s will focus on artworks that offer insight into Warhol’s most exclusive and intimate world. This curated sale, entitled For Members Only: Eyes on the Guise, features over 200 photographs, prints and drawings in which the artist focused his unique gaze on the male nude, following the same artistic path of discovery as his predecessors throughout art history. For two weeks, from Thursday, June 13th through Thursday, June 27th, collectors around the world will have the opportunity to bid online to acquire these exceptional and sometimes intimate works, the majority of which have never been seen in public. With opening bids starting as low as $800, it is possible for collectors and Warhol enthusiasts at all levels to
participate.

The launch of For Members Only: Eyes on the Guise coincides with International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. In homage to the Pride movement, of which Warhol was an early and active supporter, Christie’s organized a special, one-day-only exhibition of highlights from the curated sale, held at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in Manhattan today.

“In 1984, Andy participated in New York’s Gay Day parade (as they called it then). He took photos, and the pride they displayed then is the pride which we feel today,” noted Joel Wachs, President of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Throughout his career, Warhol depicted male nudes through photography or drawing, often using gay underground culture as his backdrop. His visual explorations of the complexity of sexuality and desire chronicle the momentous changes within the gay community in the late 20th century, when many young men were flocking to urban centers such as New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans from their suburban and rural hometowns. With the anonymity of the city came the opportunity for a subculture that was both self-sustaining and self-defining. Warhol himself moved from Pittsburgh to New York in the summer of 1949, and witnessed first-hand both the blossoming of the gay community in the 1970s and the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic that battered the community in the 1980s.

Marc Porter, Chairman of Christie’s Americas, commented, “As we continue to explore the vast scope of Andy’s works, the daring and innovative spirit of his artwork is revealed to us again and again. Art often pushes boundaries, and this selection of images and drawings demonstrates Warhol’s fearlessness in both exploring and celebrating a gay identity that was emerging in late 20th century New York. Much in the way that his “Electric Chair” and “Car Crash” series challenge and provoke the viewer, the original works presented here – many for the first time – will help to expand our collective understanding of Warhol as one of the most socially significant artists and observers of our time.”