Andy Warhol’s iconic portrait of Debbie Harry from 1985 resurfaces, expected to sell for millions
The portrait of Harry was created when Warhol served as an ambassador for a now-defunct tech company
tribune.com.pk – 30th July 2024
A long-lost Andy Warhol portrait of Blondie singer Debbie Harry from 1985, which has been displayed in rural Delaware, is now up for sale, potentially worth millions.
The portrait of Harry — along with a signed disk containing 10 Warhol images — was created on an early home computer when Warhol served as an ambassador for a now-defunct tech company.
Almost 40 years ago, the iconic artist collaborated with early tech company Commodore as a brand ambassador and created a portrait of the “Heart of Glass” singer using an Amiga 1000 home computer during a promotional event at Lincoln Center.
According to the Warhol Museum, Warhol also produced digital artworks on the computer of a Campbell’s soup can, flowers, and Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus.” He intended to distribute these images as artworks, as he mentioned to Amiga World magazine at the time, but never followed through, the museum states.
However, Harry has mentioned that at least two printed copies of her Warhol portrait exist.
She recalled in her 2019 memoir, “Face it,” “Andy called and asked me to model for a portrait he was going to create live, at Lincoln Center, as a promotion for the Commodore Amiga computer. It was a pretty amazing event.”
She wrote, “They had a full orchestra and a large board set up with a bunch of technicians in lab coats. The techs programmed away with all the Warhol colors, as Andy designed and painted my portrait. I hammed it up some for the cameras, turning toward Andy, running my hand through my hair, and asking in a suggestive Marilyn voice, ‘Are you ready to paint me?’ Andy was pretty hilarious in his usual flat-affect way, as he sparred with the Commodore host.”
According to Harry, “I think there are only two copies of this computer-generated Warhol in existence and I have one of them.”
