LONDON.- Andy Warhol’s series of portraits from the 1980s have enjoyed a radical reappraisal during the last decade. They are now recognised as some of the artist’s most compelling and accomplished works. The Post-War & Contemporary Art auction on 12 February 2015 at Bonhams New Bond Street will feature three of these portraits, each depicting a friend of the artist: the socialite, Marjorie Copley, the photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the world-renowned artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Portraits of important figures in fashionable circles have been a cornerstone of artistic production for centuries, from Titian’s depictions of the rich and powerful to John Singer Sargent’s paintings of society beauties. Warhol can be credited with reviving the neglected tradition of portraiture during the 1980s – a decade which he made his own – and the three lots on offer at Bonhams, each executed in a different medium, are prime examples of his portrait work at a pivotal moment of his career.

The Portrait of Marjorie Copley (1980), estimated at £180,000-250,000, is a remarkably elegant acrylic and silkscreen ink portrait. In a departure from the bold images in brazen Pop Art colours which dominated his work during this period, Warhol captures Copley in a graceful, delicate pose, her long hair running down her back, her mouth bearing the slight suggestion of a smile, and renders her in a subdued palette with just the occasional dash of vivid acrylic. This is Warhol at his most chic and stately.

Warhol knew Marjorie through the celebrated American artist, William Copley, to whom she was married at the time the work was painted, but Marjorie had little interest in the frenzied, bohemian scene of Warhol’s studio, The Factory. Her calmness and detachment is evident in the portrait, which rejects the bright chaos of other portraits; only her piercing blue eyes and cherry-red lips are accentuated, and the lines of her body and face are gentle. It is, says Martina Batovic, Specialist in the Contemporary Department at Bonhams, ‘a simple yet exquisite portrait’.

Warhol’s portrait of the American photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe, from 1983, is a unique screenprint on lenox museum board, and is estimated at £50,000-70,000. Mapplethorpe shared Warhol’s deep interest in portraiture, although his work focussed on the aesthetics of the anatomised body, rather than the celebrities and glamour of 1980s New York captured by Warhol. A genuine friendship and intimacy developed between the two artists, resulting in a series of reciprocal works on art. In 1983, Mapplethorpe made four portraits of Warhol – one of which hangs in the Tate Modern – and Warhol created a collection of silkscreens of the photographer, of which the present work is one. As such, it is part of the narrative which brought together two pioneers of American art.

The Polaroid print of the American artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, which was made by Warhol in 1982, is estimated at £12,000-18,000. Warhol was a mentor for Basquiat during the 1980s until his death in 1987, having met the young painter at a New York restaurant in 1980, and the pair worked on a series of collaborative paintings between 1983 and 1985 at the suggestion of the Swiss art dealer, Bruno Bischofberger. The photograph shows a fresh-faced Basquiat, his hair in trademark bunches, staring confrontationally into the camera.