Notes

Galerie Ileana Sonnabend Paris Literature: "Andy Warhol", 1965, exhibition catalogue with opening announcement card (black/white), Galerie Ileana Sonnabend Paris,, 12 pages, 1 one-color (blue) screen-print, yellow end papers, stapled bound, text in French by Otto Hahn, 5.5 x 5.5 in. Condition: Excellent- slight age toning (see pics). Provenance: Galerie Ileana Sonnabend, Paris Private Collection, NY It was at the opening of the Flowers show at the Ileana Sonnabend Gallery (37 Quai des Grandes-Augustins, Paris) that Warhol's comment about being a retired artist was picked up by a journalist by The New York Times. In Popism Warhol's casual comment is given the significance of an important announcement that the artist had been thinking about making for a considerable time: "I was having so much fun in Paris that I decided it was the place to make the announcement I'd been thinking about making for months: I was going to retire from painting." The announcement has been likened to Marcel Duchamp's retirement from art during the 1920s. In reality, neither artist stopped producing work. The owner of the Paris gallery, Ileana Sonnabend, was the ex-wife of Leo Castelli and had first visited Warhol on September 18, 1962, with her first consignment from the artist dated October 7, 1962. In May 1963 some of the consigned works were included in a group show at her gallery and her first solo exhibition of Warhol's work took place in January/February 1964. According to the Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, in December 1964, while Warhol's Flowers show was on at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, "Warhol had Flowers screens fabricated in a diminishing series, based on the dimensions of 22 by 22, 14 by 14, 8 by 8, and 5 by 5 inches. These were produced for an exhibition at Ileana Sonnabend, Paris in May 1965... although the 22-inch canvases were originally commissioned as a mural for Robert and Ethel Scull..." Warhol was accompanied by Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Malanga and Chuck Wein on his trip to Paris and they spent time going to nightclubs like Castel's and Regine's Paris club - New Jimmy's. According to Warhol, they had just filmed What’s New Pussycat at Castel’s and “it seemed like the whole town was popping with stars....” John Ashbery reviewed the exhibition for the international edition of the New York Herald Tribune (May 17, 1965), referring to Warhol's visit as "the biggest transatlantic fuss since Oscar Wilde brought culture to Buffalo in the nineties."

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