Lot 651 D

„Most of the pictures in Warhol's Myths series stem from radio broadcasts, comics, Hollywood or TV films from the 50s that mostly look back on a long tradition. They are fantasy figures from childhood that represent a perfect and friendly world. And typically for Warhol, they are very American or Americanised subjects. In the Myths series, he portrays no less than the universal, enchanted view of America's pure heart, of its once so powerful, enticing and alleged problem-free past.” (Werner Lippert, Andy Warhol und die amerikanischen Mythen, in: exhib.cat. Warhol Myths, NRW-Forum für Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf 2007, p.10)
The wizard of Oz was first published in 1900 and is considered to be the most famous American children's fairy tale that was repeatedly published in various forms of media. The depiction of the witch with her green face and diabolic laugh has become an iconographic image of evil, which has been propagated in Western culture. The famous screen adaption of the Wizard of Oz from 1939 served Andy Warhol as a model for the painting The Witch. Accordingly, Margaret Hamilton, the actor of the Wicked Witch of the West, embodies the character of the witch in his work.