Shoes
A unique Polaroid photograph by Andy Warhol
This Polaroid of shoes captures one of Warhol’s most iconic and enduring themes. He began drawing shoes in the 1950s as a commercial illustrator in New York and became so successful at it that he was known as “the shoe person.” For the next three decades, he would continue depicting shoes of various types and in assorted formations in his drawings, screenprints, and paintings.
Year: 1982
Medium: Unique Polaroid print
Size: 4.25 x 3.375 in (10.8 x 8.6 cm)
Framed size: 11 x 8.875 in (27.9 x 22.5 cm)
Provenance:
Estate of Andy Warhol (stamped)
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (stamped)
Long-Sharp Gallery
Authenticated by the Authentication Board of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (stamp on verso), Foundation archive number on verso in pencil, initialed by the person who entered the works into The Foundation archive.
Andy Warhol and Polaroids
Beginning in the 1960s, Warhol used photography (his or someone else’s) as the foundation for almost all his visual art projects. He typically used a Minox 35 compact to document daily life and a Polaroid camera for his artistic endeavors. He reportedly had at least two Polaroid cameras – a Big Shot and a SX-70 – both of which appealed to Warhol for their immediacy and hands-off production.
Archives of his Polaroids include subject matter that would later become some of his most iconic. Photos of soup cans, shoes, celebrities, and more were taken as a starting point for his paintings and screenprints. One need only think about a quintessential Warhol painting or print to appreciate that his genius was rooted in photography.