Andy Warhol’s Blackglama (Judy Garland) (1985) is centered around a sophisticated and mature Judy Garland in three quarter view, her gaze directed into a distance beyond the viewer. Her image is bathed in electric blue and vibrant pink, emerging from a black background. Warhol’s Blackgama (Judy Garland) features the brand’s well-known slogan, “What becomes a Legend most?”, floating above her head like a neon sign. Judy Garland was one of many famous women to be part of this Blackgama campaign; their images aimed to symbolize the elegance and status of the brand. By appropriating this advertisement, Warhol’s Blackgama (Judy Garland) calls to attention the ways that images and famous names become commodities.

Andy Warhol’s Ads portfolio, made in 1985, is a stunning exemplar of the core tenets of Warhol’s art practice. Drawing on his initial start as a commercial illustrator, the focus on commonplace advertisements encapsulates his interest in commercialism and consumerism. The Ads portfolio pulls from globally recognized brands associated with a wide range of products, from Volkswagen cars to Paramount movies, and elevates these elements of ordinary life to the status of high art. These advertisements were powerful symbols, and Andy Warhol’s Ads portfolio is a peek into the media landscape of the 1980s. By isolating the quotidian images in these advertisements from their commercial context, Warhol creates a space to appreciate the aesthetics of the everyday. Andy Warhol’s Ads portfolio is quintessential to the history of art, and is a gorgeous collection of some of his most sought after works.

Created in 1985, Andy Warhol’s Blackgama (Judy Garland) is a color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board and is signed in pencil in the lower left. It is a unique work of an edition of 190, 50 AP, 30 PP, 5 EP, 10 HC, and 10 numbered in Roman numerals, published by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., New York and printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York.

Andy Warhol Ads Series, 1985:

Andy Warhol’s Ads series of 1985 features a variety of advertisements and logos of popular consumer brands including Chanel No. 5, Paramount, Volkswagen, Mobilgas, and Apple.

Interested in exploring the relationship between art and commerce, Warhol understood advertisements to be ubiquitous and influential forms of visual culture that could be celebrated through art. By reproducing these quotidian advertisements as art, Warhol questions the value of traditional art forms and the role of the artist in a commercial society.

Each artwork in the series features the product or brand name in bold letters, surrounded by vibrant colors and other design elements. Warhol's use of repetition and bright colors gives these advertisements a sense of familiarity and immediacy, emphasizing their power over consumer desires and popular culture at large.

This screenprint is part of a portfolio of 10 works Warhol created in 1985 titled The Andy Warhol Ads Series . Other works in the Series include Apple, Mobil, Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean), Van Heusen (Ronald Reagan), Paramount, Blackglama (Judy Garland), Chanel, The New Spirit (Donald Duck), Lifesavers, Volkswagen.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:

Andy Warhol, Blackgama (Judy Garland), from Ads (1985), is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work).

1. Feldman, Frayda and Jörg Schellmann. Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 – 1987, 4th Ed. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2003.  Andy Warhol’s Blackgama is listed and referenced as catalogue raisonne number FS II 351.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany our Andy Warhol’s Blackgama (Judy Garland).

About the Framing:

Andy Warhol’s Blackgama is framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, artist name title, year is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.