Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
When Warhol agreed to do a poster for The Paris Review in 1965 he wanted an artifact associated with the magazine that he could reproduce and stamp with his signature. The editors suggested a subpoena served to the magazine for non-payment of certain legal expenses, but Warhol preferred a bill to The Paris Review for two bottles of scotch and a bottle of vodka from the Regency Wine & Liquor store, just around the corner from the magazine’s offices.
The enlarged version of the bill produced by Warhol’s Factory apprentices initially displeased him. He had wanted the reproduction the same size as the original liquor bill: four by six inches. After some argument, however, Warhol conceded that one could not expect significant sales from such a miniscule poster, and that, further, the replica would be too small to accommodate his stamped signature. The poster hung in the window of Regency Wine & Liquor for a year. One of the few remaining copes now hangs at 541 East 72nd Street. Another hangs in our office at 544 West 27th Street.