In a rare opportunity, art collectors can purchase an original work by iconic American artist Andy Warhol and help artists in Charlotte at the same time.
The McColl Center in uptown is the beneficiary of the sale on eBay of five of Warhol’s original works totaling nearly $19,000 as a grantee of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ new initiative Philanthropy Factory. Proceeds from the sale will go toward the Charlotte art hub’s residency program that supports artists’ careers, the center said in a news release Thursday.
McColl is one of 74 organizations benefiting from the Philanthropy Factory collection valued at nearly $1.5 million. McColl earns 75% of the sale proceeds, with the rest going to Matchfire, an online charity auction group working with eBay.
Within 24 hours of the sale’s start on Tuesday, which was Warhol’s birthday, one piece was snatched up.
The 1981 35-by-21 1/2 inch poster “Ali, Neiman and Andy Warhol,” sold for $500, McColl spokeswoman Makeia Carrier said Thursday. The image is of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali’s fixed gaze moments from throwing his first punch with color swirls around him.
The remaining works are offset lithographs on paper or a screen print on wallpaper, and you can “buy it now” on eBay for between $1,500 and $12,000.
Warhol was a key figure in the Pop Art movement that started in the 1950s exploring links between advertising, celebrity culture and artistic expression through lithographs and paintings. Warhol, who died in 1987 at the age of 59, is known for bright-colored portraits like “Campbell’s Soup Cans” and “Marilyns.”
“Andy Warhol revolutionized the way the world thinks about artists and their artwork,” Armando Bellmas, interim president and CEO of the McColl Center, said in a statement Thursday.
Andy Warhol original art for sale
Four pieces from Warhol’s personal collection are still for sale on the eBay for Charity website that benefits the McColl, as of mid-day Friday:
▪ “A la Recherche du Shoe Perdu,” 1955
By Andy Warhol and Shoe Poems by Ralph Pomeroy
Offset lithograph on paper
19.625 x 12.875 inches
Price: $1,500.
▪ “Studies for a Boy Book,” 1956
Offset lithograph on paper
15.875 x 13.5 inches
Price: $2,000.
▪ “Wrapping Paper,” 1959
Offset lithograph on paper
29 x 23 inches
Price: $2,880.
▪ “Fish,” 1983
Screen print on wallpaper
44.125 x 29.375 inches
Price: $12,000.
The sale runs through Aug. 20.
More about the McColl Center
The McColl Center offers an artist residency and contemporary art space in uptown Charlotte. The former church space offers subsidized artist studios, access to modern equipment and tools, artist entrepreneurship programs and exhibitions in a 5,000-square-foot gallery space.
Last year, the center was selected as a grantee by the Warhol Foundation, which includes a multi-year grant totaling $100,000, Carrier said. The money provides support to McColl Center’s artist-in-residence programs for 14 artists each year, according to the center’s website.
More arts coverage
Want to see more stories like this? Sign up here for our free “Inside Charlotte Arts” newsletter: charlotteobserver.com/newsletters. And you can join our Facebook group, “Inside Charlotte Arts,” by going here: facebook.com/groups/insidecharlottearts.
