2002 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives
April 29, 2002: Andy Warhol's Superman Auction
Sotherby's are auctioning off a Superman painting by Andy Warhol. Lot 34 (of a 61 lot auction), the 1981 painting has a price estimate of US$1,000,000-1,500,000 and will go under the hammer at 7pm on May 15th in New York.Some controversy surrounds this painting and its origins/ownership. However here is how the item is described by the Sotherby's website...
Signed and dated 1981 on the overlap; stamped and numbered A127.011 by the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc. on the overlap acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas
Provenance: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., New York Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1988
Exhibited: New York, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Andy Warhol Myths, September - October 1981 Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Andy Warhol: Bilder 1961 bis 1981, October - December 1981, cat. no. 62, illustrated in color Seoul, Ho-Am Art Hall, Contemporary Art from New York, July - August 1988 New York, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Myths, January - February 2000
The subject of Andy Warhol's 1981 painting, Superman, hardly needs to be introduced or deciphered. As with many, if not all of Warhol's pop-icons, the image of Superman makes its own immediate statement complete with a panoply of instantaneous associations and meanings. Superman, the icon, inhabits the very same ``tradable consciousness of the world of things'' from which Warhol drew much of his pop-culture iconography (Heiner Bastian, Andy Warhol Retrospective, London, 2001, p. 28). A world-wide symbol of all that is honorable and true, this vibrating image of every child's hero is perhaps as meaningful now as it was almost seventy years ago for the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who read the original daily comic strips from which this image was taken.
Superman (1981) was not Warhol's first encounter with the world famous `Man of Steel'. In 1960, Andy Warhol produced his first hand-painted pictures based on comic-strip figures, including Batman, Dick Tracy, Popeye, and Superman. Warhol's 1960 Superman is an exact and purposeful replica of a segment of the original comic strip, the intended Pop-art focus being on the ready-made nature of the artist's blatantly appropriated subject matter. This particular image was used in postage-stamp form as a logo for the Superman comic-strips and books published by DC Comics.
A part of the artist's 1980s Myths series, this image of Superman exemplifies the modern day version of popular mythology, and more specifically the myth of the superhero. After what Warhol considered to have been the rather lackluster decade of the seventies, the artist began to take a fascinating retrospective look at his own career. The artist's Myths series was a direct result of this retrospective attitude as the artist took renewed inspiration from ten fictional characters, more specifically, American icons with mass-cultural appeal. First exhibited at Ronald Feldman's gallery space in New York, this series represents the culmination of Warhol's interest in America's obsession with the myth of fame and glamour.
Read the complete description at the Sotherby's Auction website.
2002 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News
Listed below are all the Merchandise & Miscellaneous News items archived for 2002.- January 3, 2002: Belgium/France Restaurant Figures - Update!
- January 6, 2002: Superman's New Shield in Afghanistan
- January 9, 2002: Smallville Action Figures
- January 20, 2002: Smallville Season One Trading Cards
- January 23, 2002: Pre-Order Your Animated Justice League and Superman DVDs
- January 23, 2002: New Superman Roller Coaster
- January 29, 2002: Superman Poetry wins Paris Review Prize!
- January 31, 2002: Super Valentines Ideas!
- February 3, 2002: Superman Radio Episodes on the Web
- February 10, 2002: 2002 Superman Celebration
- February 13, 2002: Exclusive Jim Hambrick Interview
- February 13, 2002: Superman PS2 Game - Launch Date Announced!
- February 14, 2002: More on the PS2 Superman Game
- February 14, 2002: New Smallville and Superman Action Figures! (Update)
- February 18, 2002: Superman: Man of Steel Xbox Game
- February 19, 2002: More on the Superman Xbox Game
- February 22, 2002: Christopher Reeve's New Book
- February 25, 2002: Exclusive David Olsen Interview
- February 28, 2002: New PS2 Superman Game Screenshots
- February 28, 2002: Vanity Fair Superman Article
- March 2, 2002: New Look for Multipath Adventures of Superman
- March 5, 2002: Superman Homepage Featured in Australian Newspaper
- March 7, 2002: Circus Freak Develop Superman Game
- March 20, 2002: Fans Looking to Create Superman Game
- March 21, 2002: PLAY Magazine Feature on PS2 Superman Game
- March 27, 2002: Justice League Novels
- March 27, 2002: Superman Artist Needed!
- March 28, 2002: PS2 Superman Game Movie Files
- March 29, 2002: Smallville Novels On The Way
- April 1, 2002: 2003 - A Super Year for Calendars
- April 2, 2002: That Was Then, This Is Now
- April 2, 2002: Kryptonian Cybernet Archive
- April 3, 2002: Subway and Justice League Join Forces
- April 4, 2002: Superman on Trial in the Real World
- April 6, 2002: Superman at Movie World Madrid
- April 7, 2002: Smallville Merchandise on Sale!
- April 8, 2002: Superman on Game Boy Advance
- April 9, 2002: More Smallville Merchandise On Sale!
- April 11, 2002: Superman Game in Official xBox Magazine
- April 12, 2002: Superman: The Ultimate Guide Hardcover Book
- April 12, 2002: New JLA Monopoly Game on Sale!
- April 12, 2002: Superman - Unreal Tournament
- April 13, 2002: Experience Superman: Ultimate Flight Ride
- April 22, 2002: Justice League DVD Website Launched
- April 24, 2002: Justice League Fruit Snacks
- April 29, 2002: Justice League Video Game!
- April 29, 2002: Andy Warhol's Superman Auction
- May 4, 2002: Smallville Preview Trading Card Set
- May 4, 2002: Special Edition Comics Heroes Magazine
- May 7, 2002: St. Cloud's Superman
- May 12, 2002: Pre-Order Your Smallville Novels Now!
- May 26, 2002: Warhol's Million Dollar Superman
- May 26, 2002: Up-Coming Fossil Superman Watch
- May 30, 2002: Pre-Order Your Smallville Novels and Action Figures
- June 13, 2002: Borders Superman Gift Cards
- June 17, 2002: Help Celebrate Superman's Birthday!
- June 21, 2002: Sneak Peek - Superman: The Ultimate Guide
- June 21, 2002: Share Your Ideas with DC Direct
- July 10, 2002: Warner Bros. Gives Mattel Rights
- July 11, 2002: Smallville Preview Trading Card Set
- July 21, 2002: Women Vote for Superman Over Batman!
- July 22, 2002: Superman Gameboy Advance Details
- August 5, 2002: Details on New Smallville Dragon Novel
- August 6, 2002: Up-Coming Merchandise From DC Direct
- August 11, 2002: DC HeroClix from WizKidsGames
- August 15, 2002: Roger Stern Talks Strange Visitors
- August 21, 2002: New Smallville Novel - Hauntings
- August 26, 2002: Smallville High School Merchandise
- August 29, 2002: Roger Stern on Smallville: Strange Visitors
- September 1, 2002: Smallville: Season One Trading Cards
- September 8, 2002: Signed Smallville Trading Cards
- September 16, 2002: DC HeroClix Our Worlds at War Superman
- September 25, 2002: Jerry Seinfeld's Halloween Book
- September 26, 2002: Superman Fan Making a Difference
- September 29, 2002: Superman PS2 Game Reviews
- October 13, 2002: Superman Poem Call me Clark!
- October 23, 2002: Superman-Ultimate Flight Coming to New Jersey
- October 29, 2002: Superman PS2 Movie Trailer
- November 3, 2002: Superman xBox Movie Trailer
- November 12, 2002: Smallville: Season One Trading Cards
- November 14, 2002: Superfriends DVD Release Date
- November 17, 2002: Justice League on Game Boy Advance
- November 17, 2002: Atari Ships Superman: The Man of Steel for Xbox
- November 21, 2002: Six Flags Announce Superman Tower of Power
- December 4, 2002: Save the Metropolis Water Tower
- December 4, 2002: Kingdom Come Action Figures
- December 8, 2002: Superman vs Spider-Man?
- December 18, 2002: Christopher Reeve to Trigger New Year's Countdown
- December 18, 2002: Superman in the News
- December 22, 2002: Superman Homepage Awarded Wizard's Site of the Month!
- December 31, 2002: Superman Needed Now More Than Ever
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