A portrait of The Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger, by world-renowned pop artist Andy Warhol, will hit the auction block on Wednesday, December 6 at 4 PM, EST in Cowley Abbott’s Live Auction of Important Canadian & International Art.
The colour screenprint, titled Mick Jagger, is signed by both Warhol and Jagger. It carries an auction estimate of $135,000 to $175,000 and comes from a private collection in Ontario. With The Rolling Stones’ North American tour drawing excitement from fans, the artwork is also attracting interest from international collectors.
Warhol was fascinated by pop culture and captured many famous individuals in his art, including Jagger. The two met in the1960s in New York when the Rolling Stones were on their first tour of the United States and they remained close friends throughout their lives. Their first of many artistic collaborations was in 1971 when Warhol created the album cover for Sticky Fingers.
In 1975, Jagger rented Warhol’s Montauk home on Long Island, New York, while in town with the band to rehearse for their upcoming tour. There, Warhol took a series of Polaroids of the singer, shirt off with just a chain around his neck, focused on capturing Jagger’s overt sex appeal. Warhol, who deviated from his usual process, turned those Polaroids into a portfolio of 10 screenprints. This portrait is one of the works from that series.
The auction will take place at the Globe and Mail Centre, 351 King St. East, Toronto, and will also be livestreamed online at cowleyabbott.ca, allowing for simultaneous in-person, telephone, absentee and real-time online bidding – enabling prospective buyers to participate from anywhere in the world.
Since its inception in 2013, Cowley Abbott’s live and online auctions have included headline-grabbing works that have regularly smashed auction records. Cowley Abbott has rapidly grown to be a leader in today’s competitive Canadian auction industry, with a dual gallery in downtown Toronto and representatives across Canada. Cowley Abbott’s effective set of services marry the traditional methods of promoting artwork with technology and innovative means to connect collectors with artwork of rarity and quality.
