Andy Warhol African Elephant 1986 CMOA Limited Edition 24x24 O/S Lithograph

  
Andy Warhol "African Elephant 293" 1986 CMOA Limited Edition Off Set Lithograph. Signed in the Print and numbered in pencil. Condition: Used, excellent, never been framed. Printed on Lenox Museum paper, the piece measures 23 3/4" x 23 3/4". Followed in CMOA (Carnegie Museum of Art) and Stamped with CMOA on the reverse. Part of Andy Warhol's Series of 10 "Endangered Species", Using brilliant colors - characteristic of his signature style - and poignant expressions suggestive of the animal's fate, Andy Warhol creates a dynamic tension between art and reality. Commissioned by art dealer and gallerist, Ronald Feldman, Warhol selected a group of ten animals then believed to be under such a threat as designated by the United States' Endangered Species Act of 1973. The African elephant, the largest land animal, is an animal that, when taking into consideration its two species, the savannah and forest varieties, is critically endangered and at risk of extinction.

The African elephant has become something of a poster animal for the act and endangered animals in general, bringing the issues of illegal poaching and ivory trade practices to the forefront. Andy Warhol's African elephant is a towering figure. Viewed slightly from below, the elephant, taken from an image by wildlife photographer Mitch Reardon, is cropped closely, leaving little of the ground it stands on and its bushy horizon. Instead, a massive pinkish sky backgrounds the subject, enlarging its presence in the space and looming over the viewer as much as the foreground.

In contrast, the animal's tusks are small; however, they provide the only white to contrast the deep shadowed blacks throughout the piece. 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.