Camouflage

Portfolio of 8 screenprints
Medium: Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Year: 1987
Sheet: 38×38 inches (96.5 x 96.5 cm)
Edition: 80
Other: 3 Printers’ Proofs (PP), 1 Exhibition Proof (EP)
Trial Proofs: 84 individual TP not in portfolios
Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New-York
Publisher: Andy Warhol, New-York
Literature: Feldman and Schellmann II.406-413
Printed in fluorescent ink

Signed and numbered in pencil on verso by the Executor of the Estate of Andy Warhol on a stamped Certificate of Authenticity

It was studio assistant Jay Shriver who experimented with a new painting technique in the late 1980’s, pushing paint through military cloth, who gave Warhol the idea of appropriating the combat related imagery. Warhol was intrigued by the all-over repetitive pattern of camouflage, with its leaf-shaped sprigs and islands, that represented the abstract expressionist paintings of his contemporaries. Using photographs taken of clothing purchased at an army surplus store, Warhol transposed and carefully altered the camouflage designs with a psychedelic palette. Playfully abstracting the patterns, the artist defied the print’s original purpose to disguise, and instead pushed the designs to center stage with vibrant fluorescent colors. The result was a set of eight screen-prints, each with different colors and varying levels of depth, that would form one of the artist’s final projects.

‘His last series of prints, ‘Camouflage’, published post-humously, has become a convenient metaphor for the enigma that was Andy Warhol… The prints are extremely difficult to reproduce accurately because of the use of fluorescent ink… Warhol transformed our understanding of the print into something quite different from what we believed it to be: in his hands it became unique, even unreproducible.’

Frayda Feldman and Jörg Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987, Distributed Art Publisher’s Inc., New York, 2003, pp. 32-33

Moving beyond depictions of iconic figures, Warhol’s final print portfolio contrasts the individuality of his typical portraiture with the uniformity of camouflage. Designed to blend in with an environment and strongly associated with the armed forces, camouflage’s paradox of being a pattern of disguise yet identifiable by the masses may have appealed to Warhol’s sensibilities towards brands and logos. Universally recognizable, the pattern bears further connotations of masculinity, landscape, and nationality, themes of which Warhol addressed throughout his prolific career in printmaking.

“If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, there I am.”

The Camouflage portfolio, printed in fluorescent hues, boldly sabotages the traditional purpose of camouflage, eschewing the typical muted tones of green, brown, and gray. In this subversion of camouflage’s typical purpose, the pattern is transformed into something ironically conspicuous, obliterating its function. The Day-Glo fluorescence additionally renders the works difficult to reproduce accurately, undermining the inherent replicative essence of a print. Here, Warhol transforms our understanding of what a print can be: in his hands, it became unique, even unreproducible.

Published posthumously, Camouflage further serves as a convenient metaphor for the enigma that was Andy Warhol. Plagued with severe acne and early baldness, Warhol chose to wear makeup and custom-made wigs. He feigned ignorance regarding art history, which he had formally studied since age eleven, and he would lie about where he was from: depending on the journalist who asked him, it was Philadelphia, Cleveland, or Newport, Rhode Island, when really – it was Pittsburgh. Camouflage can thus be viewed as an external projection of his internal insecurities, his very last print portfolio being perhaps one of his most personal.

Camouflage, 1987

1. Camouflage (F&S II.406)

2. Camouflage (F&S II.407)

3. Camouflage (F&S II.408)

4. Camouflage (F&S II.409)

5. Camouflage (F&S II.410)

6. Camouflage (F&S II.411)

7. Camouflage (F&S II.412)

8. Camouflage (F&S II.413)

Auction Results

1. Main Editions

Bonhams LA: 1 October 2024
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 44,800

Phillips London: 6 June 2024
Estimated: GBP 10,000 – 15,000
GBP 13,970 / USD 17,812

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 7 December 2023
Estimated: HKD 200,000 – 400,000
HKD 330,200 / USD 42,269

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
Camouflage (F. & S. II.407), 1987
Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Signed on the reverse by Frederick Hughes, the executor of the Andy Warhol Estate
Numbered 48/80 with the blindstamp of the printer

Phillips New-York: 26 October 2023
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 38,100

Christie’s New-York: 20 April 2023
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 103,320

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
Camouflage: one print, 1987
Signed in pencil on the reverse by Frederick Hughes, executor of the Andy Warhol Estate
Numbered 42/80

Phillips London: 15 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 88,200

ANDY WARHOL
Camouflage (F. & S. 410), 1987
Signed by Fredrick W. Hughes (Executor of the Estate of Andy Warhol)
Titled, annotated ‘REG.ED’ and numbered 30/80 in pencil on the stamped Certificate of Authenticity
(on the reverse)

Phillips London: 15 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 98,280

ANDY WARHOL
Camouflage (F. & S. 411), 1987
Signed by Fredrick W. Hughes (Executor of the Estate of Andy Warhol)
Titled, annotated ‘REG.ED’ and numbered 38/80 in pencil on the stamped Certificate of Authenticity
(on the reverse)

Phillips London: 15 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 85,680

ANDY WARHOL
Camouflage (F. & S. 412), 1987
Signed by Fredrick W. Hughes (Executor of the Estate of Andy Warhol)
Titled, annotated ‘REG.ED’ and numbered 64/80 in pencil on the stamped Certificate of Authenticity
(on the reverse)

Sotheby’s New-York: 21 April 2022
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 101,700

ANDY WARHOL
Camouflage (Feldman & Schellmann II.408), 1987
Signed in pencil on the verso by Frederick Hughes, the executor of the Andy Warhol Estate
Numbered 52/80

2. Trial Proofs

Phillips New-York: 22 October 2024
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 69,850

Phillips London: 15 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 83,160

ANDY WARHOL
Camouflage, 1987
Unique screen-print in colors, on Lenox Museum Board
Signed by Fredrick W. Hughes (Executor of the Estate of Andy Warhol)
Titled and numbered ‘T.P. 47/84’ in pencil on the stamped Certificate of Authenticity on the reverse
A unique color variant trial proof, aside from the edition of 80

3. Complete Sets

Phillips New-York: 26 October 2023
Estimated: USD 200,000 – 300,000
USD 254,000

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 25 July 2023
Estimated: HKD 1,500,000 – 2,300,000
HKD 3,302,000 / USD 422,741

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
CAMOUFLAGE (F. & S. II.406 – 413) (Set of Eight), 1987
Portfolio of eight screen-prints on Lenox Museum Board with original box
Signed on the reverse by Frederick Hughes, the executor of the Andy Warhol Estate
Numbered 40/80 with the blindstamp of the printer Rupert Jasen Smith, New York

Artnet Auctions: 23 June 2021
Estimated: USD 250,000 – 350,000
USD 312,000

ANDY WARHOL
Camouflage (complete set of 8 works), 1987
Screenprints in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Each signed by the executor, titled, inscribed `REG ED.’ and numbered 44/80 in pencil on the reverse on the stamped certificate of authenticity (as issued)

Phillips New-York: 22 April 2021
Estimated: USD 200,000 – 300,000
USD 378,000