Andy Warhol’s Family Is Selling His Earlier Paintings From His College Days

Later this year, the family of the late Andy Warhol will be auctioning off the famed artist’s early paintings he created while at art college, which had been left behind as part of his relatives’ estate. 

Interestingly, James Warhola, the pop artist’s (Warhol dropped the ‘a’ from his surname) nephew who is facilitating the sale, is an illustrator himself. He and his siblings inherited Warhol’s works after his father and mother passed away in 2014 and 2016 respectively. 

Some of the works that will be up for sale are a humorously titled Nosepicker #2 (1948) and Two Dogs Kissing (1947), which ARTnews reports are still life and portrait paintings that aren’t at all similar to the silkscreens for which the artist is known. Others include a series of animal studies and sketches of people.

It’s said that Warhol produced these early works while he studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now the Carnegie-Mellon University) from 1945 to 1949. His brother, Paul Warhola, had been the one to keep the pieces when the artist graduated and moved to New York. 

As per Tribune-Review, some of the works in the collection, of which there are 14 in total, have been up for exhibition at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and have traveled across the nation for the recent Andy Warhol: Lifetimes exhibition. 

On the webpage cataloging the auction, the Warhola family recounts the visionary as one whose “drawing abilities became known amongst his peers.” 

“Andy’s primary ambition while at Carnegie Tech was to become a fine artist and possibly teach art like some of his professors,” his relatives reveal.

“Instead, the opportunity came up to leave Pittsburgh and pursue art in New York City with Philip Pearlstein. He immediately started into the field of illustration. … He had an endless flow of work that gained him much recognition throughout the 1950s.” 

Estimates for the sale have yet to be released, but you can head here for more information on the lots up for auction.

[via ARTnews and The Andy Warhol Family Album, cover image via Jack Mitchell / The Wikimedia Foundation (CC BY-SA 4.0)]