Signed in the Print and numbered in pencil

Edition 360/500 

Condition: Used, excellent, never been framed

Printed on Lenox Museum paper, the piece measures 19 11/16" x 19 11/16"

Followed in CMOA (Carnegie Museum of Art) and Stamped with CMOA on the reverse.

The Witch 261 is a print created in 1981 for the Myths series which was centered around Hollywood fame, from commissioned portraits to appropriated images of celebrities.

The Witch 261 depicts a woman (the Wicked Witch of the West) with vibrant green skin dressed entirely in black. The source material for some of Warhol’s Myths prints were Polaroid portraits of people in costumes and makeup. The artist called upon Margaret Hamilton herself, the actress who portrayed the witch in the original 1931 film The Wizard of Oz, to recreate her pose for the basis of the print. the Witch’s lips are curled back in a maniacal laugh. The plain purple background complements her lurid green complexion; additional traces of red and green outline her wide-brimmed hat and dark clothing, a technique Warhol used frequently to highlight the subject of his prints.

About the artist:

Andy Warhol, original name Andrew Warhola, (born August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, PA, —died February 22, 1987, New York, New York)

American artist and filmmaker, an initiator and leading exponent of the Pop art movement of the 1960s whose mass-produced art apotheosized the supposed banality of the commercial culture of the United States.