Mr K. (Herbert Ferdinand Krüll)

Details

With a photo expertise from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, dated 7 February 2014 and a certificate of provenance from Christie’s, on the reverse with label.

Exhibition:

Andy Warhol: Men Only, Taglialatella Galleries, September 2014, with illustration in the gallery’s online catalogue.

Provenance:

Estate of Andy Warhol;

Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, each with stamp and handwritten inscription “SF” and numbered “P050.685” on the reverse of the canvas;

Private collection, USA.

Description

– Expressive portrait in typical square format, full of strength and physicality in colour and brushstroke

– Andy Warhol was the most famous portrait painter of his time with commissions from all over the world

– Following the famous Willy Brandt portrait of 1976, a series of portraits of respected personalities in German-speaking countries was created

In the early 1960s, Andy Warhol began to paint portraits of celebrities, mostly based on models from magazines and newspapers. With his recourse to mass media, the development of his own flat, poster-like painting style and a colour aesthetic that originated in the world of advertising, Andy Warhol put the portrait back on the painting agenda. Icons of recent art history such as “Marilyn” and “Mao” were created. In November 1979, the Whitney Museum in New York presents the exhibition “Portraits of the 70s”. This was the final breakthrough that made Warhol the most sought-after portrait painter of his time. He revitalised a traditional genre in a groundbreaking way by making politically and socially respected contemporaries look like stars. Requests for portraits came from all over the world. In Andy Warhol’s brilliant oeuvre, these commissioned works represent the conclusion and climax of his career. Each canvas is laid out in Warhol’s typical square format and combines his revolutionary synthesis of photography and commercial printing techniques with the power and physicality of colour and paint application. This is also the case with the portrait of Mr K. But who was the man with the captivating blue eyes that Warhol places here against a discreet blue-grey background? He is the Düsseldorf business lawyer Herbert Friedrich Krüll (1929-1996), who, together with his wife Ursula, was one of the socialites of Düsseldorf society in the early 1980s. One night, he woke his wife and announced: “I was at the Hans Mayer Gallery and met Andy Warhol there. He paints me, and you too!” In 1980 – as always from Polaroids made by Warhol himself – a portrait of Herbert Friedrich Krüll and his wife Ursula was created. They found themselves in good company, as in the same year portraits of the German entrepreneur Michael Otto, the fashion entrepreneur and art collector Dolf Selbach and the gallery owner Hartmut Stocker were created. This wave of enthusiasm was triggered by the portrait of the then German Chancellor Willy Brandt from 1976, which remains unrivalled to this day and Warhol’s signature is unmistakable in every single one of these portraits.