(Pittsburgh 1928–1987 New York)
Jack Nicklaus, 1977, acrylic, silkscreen ink on canvas, with the stamps of The Estate of Andy Warhol and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts on the reverse, numbered with the archive number on the reverse and again on the stretcher PO 41–030, 25.7 x 25.7 cm, on stretcher

Provenance:
Galerie Hafenrichter, Nurnberg
Private collection, Germany - acquired from the above

This small-format work by Andy Warhol from 1977 is a portrait of one of the best golfers of the 20th century - US golfer Jack Nicklaus, also known as “The Golden Bear.”

From the early 1960s until the late 1980s, Nicklaus was regarded as one of the best golfers in the world. With 18 major victories under his belt, he is still the most successful player in his sport. This portrait was created as part of Warhol’s so-called Athletes series, commissioned by his friend and art collector Richard Weisman. It includes a total of ten portraits of famous athletes of the time, such as Mu hammad Ali, Chris Evert and Pelé. It is an interesting departure from Warhol’s usual soci ety portraits and occupies a rather idiosyncratic positi on in his extensive oeuvre.

Warhol had little interest in sports and its heros, and did not choose the protagonists of the series himself, leaving this task to Weisman. The latter knew many athletes personally, which made it easy to persuade them to pose for Warhol. Warhol eventually met each of the top athletes in person, and took photographs of them with his Polaroid Big Shot camera. The silkscreen portraits were subsequently created on the basis of these images. Each portrait is executed in vivid colours, and captures both the glamour and personality of the individual athlete. Of the around 60 Polaroids Warhol made of Jack Nick laus with his Big Shot camera, he selected four and processed them further into canvases. On the basis on the photographs of Nicklaus with his golf club, Warhol ultimately created 15 original por traits of the athlete.

The present 25.7 x 25.7cm work in bright shades of yellow and pink features a portrait of one of the grea test golfers of the 20th century - produced by one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.