During a seven year period, from 1953 to 1959, Warhol self-published a series of portfolios, books and individual prints – each work was produced as an offset lithograph, with Warhol employing his blotted line, the graphic technique he had developed while a student at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University).⁠

Andy WARHOL

Untiled, from 25 Cats Name[d] Sam and One Blue Pussy

Offset lithograph, circa 1954, on wove paper, with the Estate of Andy Warhol and the Warhol Foundation ink stamps on the reverse.

49.1 x 34.2 cm. (19¼ x 13½ in.)

£6,500

25 cats name[d] Sam, and One Blue Pussy, circa 1954, was one of Warhol’s first illustrated bound books. Produced with Seymour Berlin of Record Offset Corporation in New York, and written by Charles Lionsby, Warhol illustrated 25 cats name[d] Sam, and One Blue Pussy with sixteen drawings of cats, each named Sam, and a seventeenth captioned ‘One Blue Pussy’. The blotted lines effortlessly articulate the fur coats and expressive faces of Sam and the one blue pussy.

Warhol created his bound books to promote his commercial illustration and sent them to clients. One such recipient, Diana Vreeland, then fashion editor for Harper’s Bazaar and later Vogue, found her copy of Warhol’s 25 cats name[d] Sam, and One Blue Pussy, to be ‘Charming!’

25 cats name[d] Sam, and One Blue Pussy, further features calligraphy by Warhol’s mother, Julia Warhola, with whom Warhol lived in New York City from 1952 to 1970. She was the first to nurture his artistic interest and shared with him the folk-crafts of her Carpatho-Rusyn homeland – she practised embroidery, handmade tin and paper flowers, and decorated eggs. What influenced Warhol most however was Julia’s drawing and calligraphy, and admiring her style, he asked his mother to contribute her handwritten script to 25 cats name[d] Sam, and One Blue Pussy.

Throughout this joint project Warhol embraced all of his mother’s calligraphic idiosyncrasies; even when she made a mistake, Warhol adored it. Warhol chose to include his mother’s slip-ups in his finished product to such an extent that the title, 25 cats name[d] Sam, and One Blue Pussy, owes its origin to one such quirk – as Julia mistakenly left off the ‘d’ in ‘named’. The style and character of Warhol’s early drawings are typical of his mother, with similarities between Warhol’s 25 cats name[d] Sam, and One Blue Pussy and Julia’s Holy Cats, 1954.

READ MORE

1. Spotlight | Andy Warhol: 20 Under 20

2. Spotlight | Andy Warhol's Blotted-line Drawing

3. Spotlight | Ladies and Gentlemen

4. Spotlight | The Flowers Series

5. Spotlight | Shot Blue Sage Marilyn

UPCOMING EXHIBITION

Featuring Andy Warhol's vibrant, flamboyant, hand-coloured lithographs from the 1950s and elegant still-life screenprints from the 1970s, the exhibition invites you to revisit the creative world of one of the most famous artists of all time.

Click here to review the show.

Shapero Modern specialises in Modern & Contemporary prints, multiples and works on paper, with a particular focus on American 20th-century art all of which are available to buy from our website as well as our gallery on Maddox Street in Mayfair. 

The gallery runs a programme of selling exhibitions from both primary and secondary market artists, with six exhibitions per year, including collaborations with contemporary living artists as well as masters of 20th-century post-war editions including Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Claes Oldenburg, Alex Katz, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. 

Shapero Modern exhibits at major international Art Fairs worldwide, including TEFAF Maastricht, Frieze Masters, Masterpiece London, Art Miami, the IFPDA Fine Art Print Fair and the London Original Print Fair at Somerset House. Meantime, Tabitha and her team are on hand at Shapero Modern’s Mayfair gallery in the heart of London to advise on all aspects of the art market and collecting.