Saint Apollonia

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)

Saint Apollonia

signed and numbered (lower left)

screenprint on Essex Offset Kid Finish paper

30 x 22 inches (76.2 x 55.9 cm)

Executed in 1984. This work is from an edition of 250 plus 35 artist's proofs.

Published by Dr. Frank Braun, Düsseldorf.

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, California

LITERATURE:

Feldman & Schellmann II.332

NOTES:

Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) emerged as a pioneering figure at the forefront of the 1960s Pop Art movement. His vivid silkscreens of Campbell’s Soup Cans, Marilyn Monroe, and other commercial icons blurred the lines between fine art, mass production and advertising. Working across film, photography, painting and printmaking, Warhol upended traditional notions of authorship and elevated the artist to celebrity status. His Factory studio became an incubator for artistic innovation, and his incisive critique of consumerism and fame continues to shape contemporary art and popular culture today.

Saint Apollonia is an uncharacteristically pious series within Warhol’s oeuvre, reflecting both his devout Catholic faith and his sustained engagement with art history. Inspired by a Renaissance portrait of the saint by Piero della Francesca, Warhol closely preserves the original composition, embracing its frontal flatness and even mimicking the surface cracks of the historic painting. Depicted holding the pincers and extracted tooth that signify her martyrdom—and her role as the patron saint of dentistry—Apollonia becomes a bridge between sacred tradition and modern reproduction, underscoring Warhol’s belief that spiritual imagery, like celebrity, endures through repetition and visibility.