Andy Warhol — Diamond Dust Shoes For Sale

Andy Warhol — Diamond Dust Shoes

Andy Warhol's Diamond Dust Shoes is one of his most glamorous and materially inventive series, created in 1980–81 at a point when he was consciously returning to a subject from his earliest career. In the 1950s, Warhol had worked as a commercial illustrator for the shoe manufacturer I. Miller, and the Diamond Dust Shoes mark a deliberate homage to that formative chapter, now filtered through three decades of Pop practice. According to studio accounts, the project's source imagery emerged after Victor Hugo, partner of fashion designer Halston, delivered a box of Halston shoes to Warhol's studio, where assistant Ronnie Cutrone tipped them onto the floor; the resulting haphazard arrangement of scattered heels became Warhol's model.

The works combine acrylic paint, silkscreen ink and diamond dust — fine industrial diamond particles — on canvas or Arches Aquarelle paper, giving the pieces a glittering surface quality unique within Warhol's output. The series exists as both unique paintings and a signed screenprint portfolio; a "Deluxe Edition" incorporating diamond dust was issued in an edition of just 10, plus 1 printer's proof. The scattered, high-heeled silhouettes — rendered without a wearer, isolated against black or coloured grounds — evoke both glamour and absence, echoing the celebrity culture Warhol had spent his career observing.

Each work at Guy Hepner is presented with full provenance.