12 Queens, Homage to Andy Warhol - Limited Edition of 25 Print

‘12 Queens, Homage to Andy Warhol’, Aluminum Dye Sublimation, 125 X 150 cm (50 X 60 inches), 2020 Back in 2018, while creating ‘La Reine de la Route’ which is also presented here, I knew that I want to pay homage to Andy Warhol who substantially inspired my artistic world. Earlier in 2020 I figured out the desired composition and created the present ‘12 Queens, Homage to Andy Warhol’. Citroën, the French automobile manufacturer, introduced in 1934 the revolutionary Traction Avant model - the world's first mass-produced front-wheel drive car. Until the year 1954 only black Citroën Traction Avant cars were sold, and in 1939 the 6 cylinders and 15 horsepower model was unveiled. This model was at the time one of the fastest cars in France, the prime reason for the French organized crime bosses and the French police alike, to eagerly adopt it. Thus, the Traction Avant was involved in numerous police-gangsters pursuits and consequently nicknamed - La Reine de la Route - The Queen of the Road. This car triggers my sentimental feelings since it was the first car I was exposed to as a child. Our neighbor was one of the first blissful owners of this car, even though he wasn’t neither a police officer nor a mafia boss. Well, I cannot be absolutely sure about this latter fact. As a child, I always have been dreaming that the black car would become colorful, a sheer childhood dream that came true in my 2018 ‘La Reine de la Route’. In the present work I painted the car in black and grey, being loyal to the technical details as they were in reality, from the windshield wipers to the hood handles. Then I replicated 12 identical cars, all of them black and grey except for their background and headlights colors, as an outright tribute to Andy Warhol.