In June 1986, the German Federal Road Haulage Association (BDF) was to host the 20th World Congress of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) in Frankfurt am Main. It was for this occasion that the BDF commissioned Andy Warhol in 1985 to produce a set of screen-prints depicting a cargo truck.

Introduction

In June 1986, the German Federal Road Haulage Association (BDF) was to host the 20th World Congress of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) in Frankfurt am Main. It was for this occasion that the BDF commissioned Andy Warhol in 1985 to produce a set of screenprints depicting a cargo truck. The German art dealer Hermann Wünsche (1941-1993) acted as the co-publisher and go-between to the artist. Wünsche had been running his gallery out of Bonn and later the neighboring town of Königswinter on the Rhine since 1971. Back then, Bonn was the capital of West-Germany and two of the most dynamic art centres in Europe, Cologne and Düsseldorf, were in the immediate vicinity.

ANDY WARHOL
Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral), 1980
Acrylic, silkscreen ink and diamond dust on canvas
49 1/8 x 41 3/8 inches (124.6 x 105 cm)

Hermann Wünsche was one of the first gallerists to bring Andy Warhol to Germany. In 1976 he had arranged for Warhol to make a portrait of Willy Brandt, Germany’s first Social-Democratic Chancellor after the war, and went on to commission portraits of other prominent Germans, such as the president of the Cancer Society, Mildred Scheel (1980), and the goalkeeper of the national football team, Toni Schumacher (1983). Wünsche was a colorful figure, who also ran a small and exclusive nightclub in Bonn called Nachtigall (‘Nightingale’), and it may have been there that the two met. They became friends and collaborators and as early as September 1980 Warhol noted in his diary: “Hermann-the-German Wunsche was just in off the Concorde. He’s doing a catalogue of the prints since the beginning. Lunch for Hermann.” (Pat Hackett (ed.), The Andy Warhol Diaries, Penguin, London, 2010, p. 447.) He was indeed to prepare and self-publish the first catalogue raisonné of the artist’s prints that same year. Apart from the Trucks, Wünsche also published the prints series of Cologne Cathedral (1985) and, just before the artist’s death, Ludwig von Beethoven (1987).

For the German Federal Road Haulage Association to commission a series of prints the established but still controversial American pop artist was a bold and forward-thinking decision. Presumably it was the road haulers who supplied the artist with photographs as basis for the project, since it is evident that the truck depicted is of a European, not an American, type. In fact, the truck depicted is a MAN F8 19.361, one of the most-used lorries in Germany during the 1980’s. The subject was very much in line with Warhol’s practice to work with everyday objects and images, such as soup cans, washing powder boxes, advertising posters, and iconic figures, real or fictional. The image of a cargo truck combined a certain quotidian blandness with charisma and visual force, and must have suited him to a tee. After some experimentation with the lines and colours and a number of unique trial proof were printed, the artist and publishers decided to produce a set of four prints in different color combinations, with backgrounds in yellow, blue, red and black. These were printed in an edition of sixty impressions respectively, plus a small number of proofs and 15 hors commerce-impressions. The distribution was shared between Hermann Wünsche, the Federal Road Haulage Association and the International Road Transport Union.

Truck, 1985

Truck

Portfolio of four screenprints on Lenox Museum Board
Medium: Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Year: 1985
Sheet: 39.4 x 39.4 inches (100×100 cm)
Edition: 60
Artist’s Proofs: 15 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 10 PP
Hors Commerce: 15 HC
Other: 5 numbered in Roman numerals
Trial Proofs: 73 individual TP not in portfolios
(see Feldman & Schellmann IIB.367-370)
Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New-York
Publisher: Hermann Wunsche, Bonn, Germany
Literature: Feldman & Schellmann II.367-370

Signed and numbered in pencil lower right with the blindstamp of the printer
Published in cooperation with the Bundesverband des Deutschen Guterfernverkehrs to commemorate the XXth World Congress of the International Road Transport Union

1 Truck (F&S II.367)

2. Truck (F&S II.368)

3. Truck (F&S II.369)

4. Truck (F&S II.370)

2026 Auction Results

Truck (F&S II.367-370), 1985

Christie’s London: 26 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 80,000 – 120,000
GBP 152,400 / USD 204,065
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Truck (Feldman & Schellmann II.367-370), 1985
The complete set of four screenprints in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Each signed in pencil, numbered 52/60 (there were also 15 artist’s proofs)
Printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York, with his blindstamp
Published by the Bundesverband des Deutschen Güterfernverkehrs, Frankfurt am Main
In collaboration with Hermann Wünsche, Bonn
With the artist’s copyright stamp on the reverse

2025 Auction Results

Truck (F&S II.367-370), 1985

Christie’s New-York: 16 April 2025
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000
USD 189,000

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Truck (Feldman & Schellmann II.367-370), 1985
The complete set of four screenprints in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Each signed in pencil, numbered ‘HC 12⁄15’
An hors-commerce set, the edition was 60 plus fifteen artist’s proofs sets)

Truck (F&S II.367-370), 1985

Heritage Auctions: 22 April 2025
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000
USD 181,250
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Truck (complete series, four works) (Feldman & Schellmann, II.367-II.370), 1985
Screenprints in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Ed. 2/60 (aside from 45 proofs, variously editioned)
Each signed and editioned in pencil lower right
With the artist’s copyright stamp verso

Truck (TP /73), 1985

Doyle New-York: 23 October 2025
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 51,200
TRIAL PROOF

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
TRUCK, 1985
(SEE FELDMAN/SCHELLMANN IIB.367-70)
Color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, one of 73 unique trial proofs
With the artist’s copyright inkstamp verso

2024 Auction Results

Truck (F&S II.367-370), 1985

Christie’s online: 26 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 80,000 – 120,000
GBP 189,000 / USD 251,559
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Truck, 1985
The complete set of four screenprints in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Each signed in pencil, inscribed HC 13/15
An hors commerce set aside from the standard edition of sixty (there were also 15 artist’s proofs)

2023 Auction Results

Truck (F&S II.369), 1985

Doyle New-York: 1 November 2023
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 44,100

ANDY WARHOL
Truck (F&S II.369), 1985
Color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered 47/60 in pencil

Truck (F&S II.367), 1985

Phillips New-York: 26 October 2023
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 48,260

2022 Auction Results

Truck (F&S II.367-370), 1985

Christie’s New-York: 21 April 2022
Estimated: USD 80,000 – 120,000
USD 239,400
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Truck, 1985
The complete set of four screen-prints in colors
Each signed in pencil and numbered 51⁄60

Truck (F&S II.367-370), 1985

Sotheby’s New-York: 27 October 2022
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000
USD 176,400
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Truck, 1985
The complete set of four screenprints in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Each signed in pencil and numbered 21/60

Regular Editions

Doyle New-York: 1 November 2023
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 44,100

ANDY WARHOL
Truck (F&S II.369), 1985
Color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered 47/60 in pencil

Phillips New-York: 26 October 2023
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 48,260

Bonhams London: 13 June 2019
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 20,000
GBP 18,812 / USD 23,875

Trial Proofs

Doyle New-York: 23 October 2025
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 51,200
TRIAL PROOF

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
TRUCK, 1985
(SEE FELDMAN/SCHELLMANN IIB.367-70)
Color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, one of 73 unique trial proofs
With the artist’s copyright inkstamp verso

Van Ham: 16 June 2021
Estimated: EUR 25,000
EUR 38,700 / USD 44,355
TRIAL PROOF

ANDY WARHOL
Truck, 1987
Unique color serigraph on Lenox Museum cardboard
Signed lower right
A trial proof from the unnumbered edition of 73 Trial Proofs

Bonhams London: 13 June 2019
Estimated: GBP 25,000 – 35,000
GBP 31,312 / USD 39,740
TRIAL PROOF

Complete Sets

Christie’s London: 16 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 70,000 – 100,000
GBP 189,000 / / USD 225,655
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Truck, 1985
The complete set of four screen-prints in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Each signed in pencil, inscribed HC 7/15
An hors commerce-set aside from the standard edition of sixty

Sotheby’s New-York: 27 October 2022
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000
USD 176,400
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Truck, 1985
The complete set of four screenprints in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Each signed in pencil and numbered 21/60

Christie’s New-York: 21 April 2022
Estimated: USD 80,000 – 120,000
USD 239,400
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Truck, 1985
The complete set of four screen-prints in colors
Each signed in pencil and numbered 51⁄60