Andy Warhol’s Truman Capote 46 is a striking black-and-white screenprint of the celebrated American writer. The portrait shows Capote in close detail, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and holding a cigarette with effortless poise. The sharp contrasts of light and shadow highlight Capote’s piercing gaze, while Warhol’s minimalist linework reduces the image to its essential drama. Unlike Warhol’s brightly colored celebrity portraits, this unpublished print relies on simplicity and restraint, giving it a rare intimacy.
Warhol’s fascination with Truman Capote (1924–1984) stretched back to his early years in New York. Capote—already an acclaimed author, playwright, and screenwriter—embodied the literary celebrity that Warhol admired from afar. After years of one-sided admiration, the two eventually became friends. Their bond deepened during the 1970s, when Warhol’s career was dominated by celebrity portraits and Capote was a fixture of New York’s social scene.
Warhol even bartered his art for Capote’s voice. When he launched Interview magazine in 1969—still published today and known as “The Crystal Ball of Pop”—he traded a portrait of Capote in exchange for a year’s worth of columns. This collaboration exemplified Warhol’s genius for weaving together art, celebrity, and commerce.
Truman Capote 46 by Andy Warhol as Part of His Larger Body of Work
During the 1970s Andy Warhol created unpublished works and his Skulls and Hammer and Sickle series. In addition, Warhol started a series of Time Capsules: cardboard boxes that he filled with the materials of his everyday life, including mail, photos, art, clothing, collectibles, etc. The artist produced over 600 of them and they are now an archival goldmine of his life and times.
At the same time, Warhol frequently socialized with celebrities such as Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Truman Capote. He started to receive dozens—and soon hundreds—of commissions for painted portraits from wealthy socialites, musicians and film stars. Celebrity portraits developed into a significant aspect of his career and a main source of income.
Unpublished works like Truman Capote 46 reflect this era of experimentation and celebrity fascination. The print is not only a testament to Warhol’s admiration for Capote but also a rare opportunity for collectors to acquire a piece outside the mainstream of his published prints.
Photo credit: Truman Capote, left, and Andy Warhol at Studio 54 in 1979. Courtesy of Bettman, via Getty Images.
