Green Car Crash
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) is a painting by the American artist Andy Warhol. The painting is based on a photo which shows a man that has been thrown from his car after a car crash and the impact leaving him stuck on a post. On May 16, 2007 at 7 P.M, it sold for $71.7m (£42.3m) at auction.
History
Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) is one of the representative paintings of the Pop Culture. It is a part of the Death and Disaster series painted by Andy Warhol in 1963. The painting is attributed to Warhol himself, but it is assumed that his assistant Gerard Malanga had a huge contribution to this creation. Green Car Crash is one of the highly valued paintings of this collection. Green Car Crash was finished in 1963. It was inspired by some photographs taken by John Whitehead and published in the Newsweek magazine. The car was pursued by the Seattle police. The driver lost control of the wheel at 60 mph, crashing into a utility pole. Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) is the only Warhol "Burning Car" painting of five (all based on Whitehead's photograph) to utilize a color other than black and white.
Auctions and market value
Green Car Crash was privately owned for more than 30 years, and when it was put up for sale in 2007, it generated a huge amount of interest. By that time, it set a new record for an Andy Warhol creation, being sold for $71.7 million. It was a huge sum compared with the pre-auction estimation of only $25 million.
The record was broken in 2013, when another painting of the collection, the Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) was sold with $105.4 million.
