A rare, never-before-displayed Andy Warhol painting depicting socialite and Manhattan-based real estate attorney Olga Berde Mahl will make its public debut at Masterpiece London from June 25–July 1. Aptly titled The Socialite, it was created between 1986–87, and comes to the fair courtesy of Indianapolis gallery Long-Sharp Gallery.
Andy Warhol’s portrait of Olga Berde Mahl, The Socialite (1986–87).
Photo via Long-Sharp Gallery.
While Warhol’s portraits of celebrities, models, and society women are among his most well-known, the Mahl portrait has never been displayed as it was sold directly to the subject, and was in her possession until the gallery acquired it through her agent Robert Feldman (see Buy, Sell, Hold: Andy Warhol). Warhol painted two portraits of Mahl, and the second is still in her possession.
He used the money from the sale to aid in paying for his studio at 123 Watts Street in 1987 (see Lease for Andy Warhol’s First Studio Will Hit Auction Block on April 1).
Masterpiece London.
Long-Sharp specializes in the secondary market works by high-grossing modern and contemporary artists, with an emphasis on Warhol, Picasso, Miro, Basquiat, Keith Haring, Robert Indiana, and Roy Lichtenstein.
“We reserved this exceptional, fresh to the market, hand signed work for exhibition at Masterpiece London,” said director Rhonda Long-Sharp in a press release. “The provenance…speaks both to the integrity of the piece and our gallery’s decision to acquire it.”
“Unseen works by Warhol are rare,” notes Masterpiece London CEO Nazy Vassegh.