On the 3^rd of June 1968, Andy Warhol was shot and critically injured by Valerie Solanas, a marginal figure in the factory scene and the author of multiple separatist feminist manifestos. Following this, Warhol became consumed by death, veering away from his preoccupation with soup cans and Coke bottles.

 

---

Introduction

---

Throughout the 1970s – an era of growing anxiety regarding AIDS, escalating threats of nuclear war, and ecological disasters – death became the central motif in Warhol’s work, as is epitomized in Skulls. A memento mori for the Pop art era, Warhol’s Skulls create an ominous and foreboding presence, reminding the observer of the transience of life and the certainty of death. Just as Warhol was confronted with own existence as he stared into the face of his assailant, here the viewer is also forced to enter a period of self-reflection, as we contemplate our inevitable fate.

“I’m not afraid to die; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

Death is an enduring motif that permeates through the history of art. While many artworks exult in envisioning realms of the afterlife, both paradisiacal and infernal, many others refer to death in sombre memento mori still-lifes – poignantly acknowledging life’s fleeting nature and serving as a potent impetus to embrace life wholeheartedly. Building on this art historical legacy, Warhol first tackled the theme of death in his screenprint reproduction of the front-page of the June 4th 1962 edition of the New York Mirror. Emblazoned with the headline ‘129 Die in Jet!’, Warhol’s artwork nods to the media’s excitement surrounding tragic events. That same summer, Warhol began to produce his defining portraits of the late Marylin Monroe following her suicide. He soon embarked on his Death and Disaster series, in which he focused on challenging subjects such as car crashes, suicides, atomic bombs and, most iconically, the electric chair. Warhol found ample source material in the police and press photographs printed in newspapers, images whose inherent reproducibility was extended in his mechanical silkscreen process. By intertwining moments of violence, death, and tragedy with the mechanics of spectacle and mass-reproduction, Warhol explored a darker side of American life hidden behind the façade of post-war affluence and optimism.

Andy Warhol, 1975. Image: Bridgeman Images

Based on a photograph taken by Warhol’s assistant Robbie Cutrone, the Skulls prints were produced by layering bright blocks of color over a hand-drawn sketch of a human skull. Those prints are characterized by sketchy, organic lines and blocks of flat color to explore tensions between realism and abstraction. Warhol takes a playful approach to the art historical genre of still life painting, the subject of the skull making specific reference to ‘vanitas’ still lifes. Vanitas paintings in history were a reminder of human mortality and the fragility of life, and this deathly subject matter marks a shift in Warhol’s work, often linked to Warhol’s near-fatal shooting in 1968. The exuberance of the pink, red, yellow and blue blocks of color are at odds with the grave subject matter, giving the print an unsettling but striking character. In contrast to his earlier photographic portraits of famous individuals, the Skulls series overthrows this by showing a subject devoid of any individuality. Of this, his assistant Cutrone once commented that to painting a skull ‘is to paint the portrait of everybody in the world.’ Through his obsessive repetition of the subject throughout his body of work, Warhol both desensitizes and amplifies the permeating human condition of mortality.

 

 

---

Skulls, 1976

---

Skulls, 1976
4 Prints / 240 Impressions

 

 

Skulls

Portfolio of 4 screenprints on Strathmore Bristol
Medium: Screenprint in colors on Strathmore Bristol paper
Year: 1976
Sheet: 30×40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
Edition: 50
Artist’s Proofs: 10 AP
Printer: Gem Screens, New-York
Publisher: Andy Warhol Enterprises, Inc., New-York
Literature: Feldman & Schellmann II.157-160

Signed and numbered in pencil

1. Skulls (F&S II.157)

2. Skulls (F&S II.158)

3. Skulls (F&S II.159)

4. Skulls (F&S II.160)

 

 

---

2025 Auction Results

---

Skulls (F&S II.157-160), 1976

Skulls (F&S II.157-160), 1976

Phillips New-York: 16 April 2025
Estimated: USD 80,000 – 120,000
USD 120,650
COMPLETE SET

---

2024 Auction Results

---

Skulls (F&S II.159), 1976

Artnet Auctions: 20 March 2024
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 20,000
USD 17,500

Skulls (F&S II.157-160), 1976

Phillips London: 17 January 2024
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 95,250 / USD 120,310
COMPLETE SET

 

---

2023 Auction Results

---

Skulls (F&S II.157), 1976

Art+Object New Zealand: 19 September 2023
Estimated: NZD 30,000 – 50,000
NZD 37,773 / USD 22,390

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Skulls (Feldman & Schellmann II.157), 1976
Screenprint in colors
Signed in pencil, numbered 35/50

Skulls (F&S II.158), 1976

Artnet Auctions: 21 December 2023
Estimated: USD 22,000 – 28,000
USD 30,000

ANDY WARHOL
Skulls (F&S II.158), 1976
Screenprint in colors on Srathmore Bristol paper
Signed and numbered 27/50 in pencil

Skulls (F&S II.158), 1976

Christie’s online: 15 November 2023
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 37,800

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Skulls: One Print, 1976
Screenprint in colors on Strathmore Bristol paper
Signed in pencil, numbered 10/50 (there were also ten artist’s proofs)

Skulls (F&S II.159), 1976

ANDY WARHOL (Pittsburgh, 1928 – New York, 1987)
Untitled (Feldman/Schellmann II.159), 1976
from “Skulls”
Silkscreen print on Strathmore Bristol paper
Signed and numbered 40/50 in pencil lower left

Skulls (F&S II.157-160), 1976

Phillips New-York: 26 October 2023
Estimated: USD 90,000 – 120,000
USD 107,950
COMPLETE SET

 

---

Skulls (F&S II.157)

---

Christie’s New-York: 16 July 2019
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 27,500

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Skulls: one plate (Feldman & Schellmann II.157), 1976
Screen-print in colors on Strathmore Bristol paper
Signed in pencil, numbered 36/50

Art+Object New Zealand: 19 September 2023
Estimated: NZD 30,000 – 50,000
NZD 37,773 / USD 22,390

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Skulls (Feldman & Schellmann II.157), 1976
Screenprint in colors
Signed in pencil, numbered 35/50

Christie’s New-York: 16 July 2019
Estimated: USD 20,ooo – 30,000
USD 27,500

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Skulls: one plate (Feldman & Schellmann II.157), 1976
Screenprint in colors on Strathmore Bristol paper
Signed in pencil, numbered 36/50

 

---

Skulls (F&S II.158)

---

Artnet Auctions: 21 December 2023
Estimated: USD 22,000 – 28,000
USD 30,000

ANDY WARHOL
Skulls (F&S II.158), 1976
Screenprint in colors on Srathmore Bristol paper
Signed and numbered 27/50 in pencil

Christie’s online: 15 November 2023
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 37,800

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Skulls: One Print, 1976
Screenprint in colors on Strathmore Bristol paper
Signed in pencil, numbered 10/50 (there were also ten artist’s proofs)

---

Skulls (F&S II.159)

---

Artnet Auctions: 20 March 2024
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 20,000
USD 17,500

ANDY WARHOL (Pittsburgh, 1928 – New York, 1987)
Untitled (Feldman/Schellmann II.159), 1976
from “Skulls”
Silkscreen print on Strathmore Bristol paper
Signed and numbered 40/50 in pencil lower left

Phillips London: 10 September 2020
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 10,000
GBP 15,000

Christie’s New-York: 16 July 2019
Estimated: USD 10,ooo – 15,000
USD 17,500

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Skulls: one plate (Feldman & Schellmann II.159), 1976
Screenprint in colors on Strathmore Bristol paper
Signed in pencil, numbered 22/50

 

 

---

Skulls (F&S II.160)

---

Christie’s New-York: 16 July 2019
Estimated: USD 20,ooo – 30,000
USD 27,500

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Skulls: one plate (Feldman & Schellmann II.160), 1976
Screenprint in colors on Strathmore Bristol paper
Signed in pencil, numbered 36/50

 

---

Complete Sets

---

Phillips New-York: 16 April 2025
Estimated: USD 80,000 – 120,000
USD 120,650
COMPLETE SET

Phillips London: 17 January 2024
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 95,250 / USD 120,310
COMPLETE SET

Phillips New-York: 26 October 2023
Estimated: USD 90,000 – 120,000
USD 107,950
COMPLETE SET

Christie’s New-York: 6 October 2020
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000
USD 100,000
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL
Skulls, 1976
The complete set of four screen-prints in colors on Strathmore Bristol paper
Each signed and numbered in pencil ‘8/50 Andy Warhol’ (lower edge)

Sotheby’s New-York: 24 October 2019
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000
USD 137,500
COMPLETE SET

ANDY WARHOL
Skulls (F. & S. II.157-160), 1976
The complete set of four screen-prints in colors
Each signed in pencil and numbered 50/50