Sunset (Purple/Pink/Yellow)

Catalog Title: Sunset (Unique) (Purple/Pink/Yellow)
Year: 1972
Size: 34 x 34 inches
Medium: Screenprint on Paper
Edition: Unique. There are 632 unique prints divided as follows: 40 portfolios containing four prints each, signed and numbered in pencil on verso. The remaining 472 prints were used by architects Johnson & Burgee for the Hotel Marquette, Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1981, upon removal from the hotel, these prints were signed, numbered 1/470 – 470/470, and dated in pencil on verso, and two were marked “HC”; they were stamped in black on verso “Hotel Marquette Prints.”
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Andy Warhol’s Sunset (Purple/Pink/Yellow) (Unique) is a screenprint that was created in 1972. The print is based off of several reels of film shot in East Hampton, San Francisco, and New York. Warhol’s film is called Sunset, and it is one of the fifty films that has been preserved by the Museum of Modern Art. Each sunset image contains different colors thus evoking a different sensation based upon the colors. This sunset screen print depicts a pink sun with a purple and blue background. Each print in the Sunset portfolio is unique, as they are all based off of different stills from Sunset.

Sunset (Pink/Yellow) (Unique) by Andy Warhol as Part of His Larger Body of Work

The Sunset series was produced in 1972 on smooth wove paper. This series is an extreme example of the concept of color serialization. The screenprint was produced at an unheard of 472 unique color variations with the use of only three screens. The sunset series is considered to be one of Andy Warhol’s more expressive projects he produced in his lifetime. The commission for the work was made by Johnson & Burgee, famed architects, to be installed in the rooms of the renovated Hotel Marquette in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After the prints were removed from the hotel, they were signed, numbered and stamped.

Photo credit: Film still from Andy Warhol, Sunset, 1967. 16mm film, color, sound, 33 minutes. © 2016 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy The Andy Warhol Museum.

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