Artist: Warhol, Andy
"Cagney", 1972
Andy Warhol (Pittsburgh 1928 - 1987 New York)
"Cagney", 1972 (first silk screen 1962)
Offset on chamois-colored paper. 44.0 x 59.0 cm. Stamped on the reverse: Copyright (C) Andy Warhol 1972, Printed in Styria Studio Inc. (blue ink). Warhol based this work on a film still from the 1938 gangster movie "Angels with Dirty Faces", starring James Cagney. He cropped the still at the bottom and left, heightening the dramatic and menacing nature of the scene. Cagney is one of Warhol"s first screenprints on paper, this offset is printed ten years later. The white streaks through the composition are the result of printing irregularities that left blank, uninked areas on the paper. During this early moment in his career, Warhol embraced the imperfect, handmade, and almost painterly quality of such accidents