Andy Warhol — Martha Graham For Sale

Andy Warhol: Martha Graham Series

Market Performance & Investment Context

The Martha Graham portfolio occupies a distinctive position within Warhol's screen print catalogue—a late-career series that remains significantly undervalued relative to the artist's broader market trajectory. While flagship Warhol works command extraordinary premiums (Shot Sage Blue Marilyn realised $195,040,000 at Christie's in May 2022, establishing the record for any 20th-century work at auction), the Martha Graham prints offer collectors entry into Warhol's celebrated print practice at accessible price points with demonstrated appreciation potential.

Letter To The World (The Kick) achieved $53,340 at auction in October 2025—representing substantial growth from the $24,400 recorded for Satyric Festival Song in May 2010. The complete portfolio has attracted renewed interest from institutional collectors seeking comprehensive Warhol print holdings, trading at JPY 85,195 in April 2021.

Mao prints each realised $4,648,000 at Christie's in May, and Flowers achieved $4,076,000 and $3,832,000 at Sotheby's that same month—the Martha Graham series presents compelling value arbitrage. This portfolio of three screen prints on Lenox Museum Board represents one of Warhol's final major print projects before his death in February 1987. Each impression measures 36 x 36 inches (with Letter To The World (The Kick) at 35½ x 35½ inches), printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York.

The collaboration between Warhol and Graham united two titans of American modernism. Graham, then ninety-two years old, had revolutionised contemporary dance with the same radical vision Warhol brought to visual art. The series captures three of Graham's most celebrated choreographic moments: Satyric Festival Song (1932), Lamentation (1930), and Letter To The World (1940)—each transformed through Warhol's signature high-contrast treatment and synthetic colour palette.

This project marked a departure from Warhol's celebrity portraiture toward honouring creative legacy. The edition size remains modest by Warhol standards, enhancing long-term scarcity value as institutional holdings remove impressions from circulation.

One print captures Graham mid-leap in her 1932 solo, the figure rendered in Warhol's characteristic flat planes of saturated colour. Collectors responding to graphic boldness gravitate toward this impression—the dynamic pose translates Warhol's interest in arrested motion into the dance idiom.

Another print depicts Graham's iconic 1930 solo, performed seated within a tube of stretch jersey fabric. The psychological intensity of this image—grief made physical through compressed, angular form—attracts collectors drawn to emotional depth within Warhol's typically detached aesthetic. This work bridges Warhol's portraiture with his more introspective late output.

The third print has emerged as the series' market leader, recording the highest recent auction result at $53,340 in October 2025. The explosive diagonal composition and Emily Dickinson connection (the dance was inspired by the poet's life) appeals to collectors seeking intersection between visual art and literary narrative. Guy Hepner advisors consistently recommend this work for clients building thematically cohesive collections.

The complete portfolio remains the optimal acquisition for serious Warhol collectors, offering contextual integrity unavailable through individual purchases.

Authentication & Condition Standards

Each impression bears the artist's signature in pencil on the front, accompanied by edition numbering, with the printer Rupert Jasen Smith's mark appearing on verso—essential authentication markers that Guy Hepner verifies across every transaction.

Lenox Museum Board, selected for its archival stability, generally maintains excellent condition across surviving impressions. However, collectors should remain attentive to several factors: foxing along sheet edges (particularly in impressions stored in humid conditions), subtle colour fading in yellow and orange passages exposed to prolonged light, and handling creases in the margins.

Full documentation includes the original portfolio case for complete sets. Guy Hepner provides comprehensive condition reports with detailed photography, provenance verification, and authentication consultation, and our specialists confirm each work against established records before completing transactions.

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Acquire Martha Graham Series Works

Guy Hepner maintains current inventory and access to secondary market impressions across all three Martha Graham prints. Contact our New York advisory team to discuss available works, condition reports, and acquisition strategy tailored to your collection objectives.

Warhol's Broader Practice

This series belongs to the vast and varied body of print and painted work Warhol produced across five decades, during which he moved fluidly between celebrity portraiture, consumer product imagery, historical appropriation, and personal or commissioned subject matter — all filtered through the same signature screenprint process that flattened the distinction between mechanical reproduction and fine art. Warhol's insistence on treating commercial printing techniques as a primary artistic medium, rather than a secondary reproductive tool, remains one of the most influential positions in postwar American art.

Warhol's work is held in the permanent collections of major museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, which maintains the most complete public archive of his output across all periods and subjects.