Color silkscreen print, heavyweight vellum paper, 60 x 60 cm, numbered in pencil lower right 318/2400, signed within the composition lower left “Andy Warhol,” on the reverse a navy blue publisher’s stamp “CMOA” (Carnegie Museum of Art – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and a “verification of authenticity” hologram.
“Endangered Species” is one of Andy Warhol’s key and most recognizable print series. “Endangered Species” marked Warhol’s first departure from his earlier themes and represented a turning point in his entire artistic career. It is often believed that this series was created at the peak of his career, that is, at a time when Warhol had mastered the technical properties of silkscreen printing and had ceased to develop his unique style. The prints in the series were highly successful, primarily because of the departure from Warhol’s previous themes based on so-called mass culture. In the series, Warhol portrayed 10 animals listed in the Endangered Species Act—the 1973 U.S. law on endangered species. The complete “Endangered Species” series includes: the African Elephant, the Pine Barrens Frog, the Giant Panda, the Bald Eagle, the Siberian Tiger, the San Francisco Silverspot, the Orangutan, Grevy’s Zebra, the Black Rhinoceros, and the Bighorn Ram.
