Andy Warhol portrait of disgraced O.J. Simpson while he was Buffalo Bills star goes up for auction
An Andy Warhol portrait of disgraced NFL great OJ Simpson is up for auction next month and is expected to fetch up to $500,000.
The painting is part of the legendary artist’s 1977 Athletes series and is signed by both him and the former footballer.
It was created when Simpson, 75, was the star returning from the Buffalo Bills and will be auctioned May 16 at Phillips in New York City.
The portrait is heralded as a work that brings together two of the 20th century’s most recognizable names, capturing “a trajectory of celebrity and tragedy.”
It was in Ohio’s Pro Football Hall of Fame, where it was never displayed until a collector bought it for an undisclosed sum in 2011.
An Andy Warhol portrait of disgraced NFL great OJ Simpson is up for auction next month and is expected to fetch up to $500,000
It was created when Simpson, 75, was the star returning from the Buffalo Bills and will be auctioned May 16 at Phillips in New York City.
Andy Warhol’s portrait is heralded as a work that brings together two of the 20th century’s most recognizable names, capturing “a trajectory of celebrity and tragedy.”
Warhol’s famous series featured 10 of the most celebrated athletes of the era, including football legend Pele, boxer Muhammad Ali and basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The artist made multiple paintings of each subject as part of the series.
Simpson, who was 30 at the time of the meeting, showed up without a football or jersey, and Warhol had to scramble to find a ball.
The Polaroid shoot resulted in 11 silkscreen portraits; and one of them is now going up for auction for the first time.
Robert Manley, co-head of 20th century and contemporary art at the Phillips auction house, said: “Warhol certainly never could have imagined how differently the image would be viewed, nor the controversy that still surrounds the subject today.”
He believes the painting is the best of Warhol’s Athletes series, as it has “the boldest, brightest color.”
“The fascinating thing about this painting is how it has evolved over time,” he told the BBC, adding that it was painted when Simpson was “one of the most famous and beloved athletes of his generation.”
Simpson—who had retired from the NFL in 1979 and pursued an acting career—became a suspect in one of the most high-profile murder cases in American history in the 1990s.
He was accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her boyfriend Ronald Goldman in a trial that gripped the country for a year.
Simpson was acquitted by a jury in 1995, but was later found liable for the death by a California civil court jury who ordered him to pay $33.5 million to the victims’ families.
In a separate case more than a decade later, Simpson was convicted by a Las Vegas jury of leading five men, including two with guns, in a 2007 confrontation with two sporting goods dealers in a cramped room in an outdoor casino. the strip in Las Vegas. hotel.
Warhol photographed Simpson in Buffalo on October 19, 1977 and a quote from Warhol’s diary of the day reads, “He had a five day beard and I thought the pictures would be awful”
Warhol’s famous Athletes series featured 10 of the most celebrated athletes of the era, including football legend Pele, boxer Muhammad Ali and basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The infamous moment when the defense claimed gloves found at the crime scene didn’t fit Simpson, “ruling him out” as the killer
The acquitted murder suspect had been on parole since October 1, 2017, after serving nine years in prison for armed robbery in Las Vegas.
Simpson served nine years in a Nevada prison for armed robbery. He was released from parole in December 2021.
Manley noted that five decades after Warhol made it, the portrait still elicits a strong response.
“Those who see the image of Simpson staring straight into the camera probably remember the celebrity’s other infamous photo — his mugshot,” he said.
“The juxtaposition of these two images, shot at such different times in Simpson’s life, shows a fascinating trajectory of celebrity and tragedy.”
A previous image of OJ Simpson sold for $687,000 at a Christie’s auction house in 2019.
And a painting of Marilyn Monroe by Warhol sold for $195 million last year, making it the most expensive 20th century work of art ever sold.
Warhol photographed Simpson in Buffalo on October 19, 1977, and a quote from Warhol’s diary of the day reads, “He had a five-day beard and I thought the pictures would be awful.”
Warhol died in New York in 1987 at the age of 58.
The work will be on display in New York from May 6 to 15 before being auctioned.