Andy Warhol (American, 1928 - 1987). "Brillo Pads Box". Color inks on stiff paperboard. Signed c1973 in black marker. Produced prior to 1963, quantity unknown, few survive. Printed on thin grey-brown stiff paperboard. Quality printing. Good condition with the expected minor creasing; includes the unused pads. Dimensions: 5 3/8 x 6 1/2 x 2 3/4 in. (13.65 x 16.51 x 6.99 cm.). A Brillo box in a much smaller size than our example sold for $2,250 at Auctionata, New York, January 19th, 2016, lot #35. In the mid-1960s Warhol carried his consumer-product imagery into the realm of sculpture. Calling to mind a factory assembly line, Warhol employed carpenters to construct numerous plywood boxes identical in size and shape to supermarket cartons. Then he painted and silkscreened the boxes with logos of different consumer products, including Brillo soap pads. When Warhol first exhibited them at the Stable Gallery in 1964 they caused great controversy. In reference to the boxes he later said that he "wanted something ordinary," and it was this mundane, commercial subject matter that infuriated the critics. Shortly after the exhibition Warhol began, from time to time, to sign actual supermarket Brillo boxes – our example is one of these. Image copyright © Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [29241] |2400| {R100} (TL19) czzz~cozz