Original Andy Warhol (American 1928-1987) "Mick Jagger" F.& S. II.139 Silkscreen (Screenprint in Colors). Limited edition, numbered - #127/250. Signed in felt-tip pen by Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger on Arches Aquarelle wove paper, published by Seabird Editions, London, and with their ink stamp on the verso. Dated created - 1975. Measures approx. - 28 3/4" wide x 43 3/4" high. Total with frame - 36 1/4" wide x 52 1/4" high. Andy Warhol, whose name is synonymous with Pop Art*, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. He studied art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology from 1945 to 1949. He then went to New York City where he became an illustrator until 1960 when he began making paintings based on comic strip characters such as Popeye, Dick Tracy, and Superman. He turned from the prevailing Abstract-Expressionist* styles and the emphasis on the artist's emotion to a hard-line Realism*, using many common images associated with the popular media such as a Campbell Soup can or a Coca-Cola bottle or Brillo pad. The first images were hand painted, but many were reproduced with a silk-screen process. He became the "first artist to utlize the screenprint medium to elevate both common and famous photographic images from popular culture to fine art status." Andy Warhol’s obsession with celebrity Icons takes shape once again in his infamous Mick Jagger series. Warhol’s interest in photograph, collage, and drawing created a new conceptual framework associated with the appropriation of Pop Icons. The work relationship between Warhol and Mick Jagger began in 1963 and continued into maturity as both the artist and the musician were at the height of their fame in the early 1970’s. The collaboration, works so well because it manages to capture the essence of both parties involved. By the 1970s Warhol no longer relied on found imagery and had considerably expanded his range of subjects. He often took his own photographs and the ‘hand-made’ look became increasingly evident by additions of collage elements using torn cheap graphic Color Aid papers, which were produced in a seemingly endless array of colors. The series of ten screen prints of Mick Jagger were characteristic of this change in style and the artist used a selection of ten of his own photographs that he had taken of Jagger. Warhol had met Jagger in 1963 when the band the Rolling Stones were not well known in the United States. Warhol had designed the band’s provocative album cover Sticky Fingers with its focus on a man’s crotch and a zipper that opened. The album and the design proved to be a huge success and Warhol, ever keen to make money, lamented that he had not been paid enough given the millions of copies that sold. No doubt with an eye for financial success, Warhol turned to the subject of Mick Jagger, now a celebrity friend and part of the New York club scene.