Andy Warhol. [Eindhoven edition]

Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1970 [for Pasadena Art Museum]. The regular edition of this catalogue to the exhibition organized by Coplans at the Pasadena Art Museum has become scarce but still is relatively available. That cover is a standard black-and-white head shot of Warhol staring dully into the camera. The show also traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Tate Gallery, London; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The paperbound version was the same wherever it was sold—with one exception: Eindhoven. Therein lies a (truncated) tale. The van Abbemuseum bought a thousand copies of the regular catalogue in English from Pasadena or New York Graphic Society—160 pp., 119 plates (18 in color), 28 x 23 cm. The shipment actually received consisted of loose and untrimmed printed sheets (folded into signatures?), which then required binding and, perhaps, covers. The museum first intended to remedy this setback partially by adding a Dutch translation and other material and binding them all together. Instead, the translation appeared as a separate, 16-page pamphlet. This much I have on excellent authority from the van Abbemuseum itself.
The copy offered here is one of an uncertain number with a serigraphed cover on thicker, softer, uncoated paper. Closeups of Warhol appear on both covers, probably enlarged greatly from half-tone photographs to echo the ones in his “Most Wanted Men” series. The front is greenish-yellow and dark purple, with the title above in the same crude, seemingly stamped typography that appears on the half-title. Warhol wears sunglasses and appears younger than in the photograph on the regular trade edition. The backstrip is blank, unlike the normal edition. The rear cover, in violet and black, has a different picture of Warhol with no glasses, giving an odd, sideways smile or grimace. At the top of the cover in bold, sans-serif capitals is the legend VAN ABBEMUSEUM EINDHOVEN. If a cataloguer does not mention that crucial detail—and they rarely do—any similar copy will look bibliographically exactly like the normal copies sold through the other museums and to the book trade. The tale raises questions but no answers. Did the museum receive the original covers as well as the printed sheets? If so, how many copies did they bind with this cover, and did they charge a premium to cover the unexpected binding cost? If not, do we assume that there were 1000 such copies? What are the sources of the two photographs? Who came up with the imaginative design? Where was the new cover printed? Are there many unidentified copies in libraries and private collections? OCLC (the World Catalogue) locates one possible copy at the Tate in London. There are three copies at the van Abbemuseum, plus others in the Huntington Library; the Walker Art Center; the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the Avans Hoge School, both in the Netherlands; and, recently uncovered, in the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Other titles in OCLC describe the 16-page Dutch translation mentioned above. A good copy slightly cocked, with a small bump at the top right corner and a partially erased signature on the flyleaf. A mark in the center of bottom margin of the back cover is a small printing flaw during the application of the purple screen. The black borders in the scans are background, not part of the cover **Free domestic or international shipping with direct order. (Inventory #: 34296)