Andy Warhol — Endangered Species For Sale

Andy Warhol — Endangered Species

Andy Warhol's Endangered Species is his most explicitly environmental body of work — a 1983 portfolio of ten screenprints on Lenox Museum Board, published in an edition of 150 and printed by Rupert Jasen Smith. The project was born out of conversations between Warhol and New York art dealers Ronald and Frayda Feldman about ecological issues, including beach erosion affecting Warhol's own Long Island property; those discussions led the Feldmans to commission a series drawing attention to species then facing extinction.

The ten animals depicted are the African elephant, bald eagle, black rhinoceros, bighorn ram, giant panda, Grévy's zebra, orangutan, Pine Barrens tree frog, San Francisco silverspot butterfly and Siberian tiger, each rendered in Warhol's characteristic vivid, non-naturalistic colours. Of his approach, Warhol later remarked, "There's no reason I painted a panda red or an elephant pink. I just used colors I liked." The portfolio was first exhibited in "Animals: Species at Risk" at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in April 1983, and Warhol donated ten complete portfolios to wildlife and conservation organisations.

Combining Warhol's signature screenprint technique with a subject drawn directly from contemporary conservation concerns, Endangered Species stands apart in his output as a body of work with an explicit ecological purpose, bridging Pop art spectacle and environmental advocacy.

Guy Hepner offers both individual prints and complete portfolio sets, each presented with full authentication.