The series of prints, created in 1985 and co-published by German collector Hermann Wünsche, shows a type of truck that was typical in Germany at the time, and comes from the archives of the Federal Association of Road Transport, said Christie's. The auction, scheduled to take place between 16 and 28 September, will be in 'online' format, with the works on display.
In June 1986, the German association organized the 20th world congress of the International Road Transport Union, in Frankfurt, and, prior to the occasion, it invited Andy Warhol to produce the set of images with a cargo truck. The theme of cargo trucks was in line with Warhol's artistic practice of painting everyday objects and images, such as soup cans, detergent boxes, advertising posters, real or fictional.
After several experiments, the artist produced a series of four trucks in different color combinations, with a backdrop in yellow, red, blue and black, which were printed in an edition of 60 each, and handed over to Hermann Wünsche, the transport association and to the International Road Transport Union.
German collector and gallery owner Hermann Wünsche participated in the project. He was one of the first gallery owners to show Warhol's work in Germany, having, in particular, commissioned the protagonist of Pop Art, in 1976, for a portrait of Willy Brandt, Germany's first social-democratic chancellor, after World War II World. After this work, the American artist was asked to have other portraits of prominent figures in Germany, such as the president of the anti-cancer society, Mildred Scheel (1980), and soccer team goalkeeper Toni Schumacher (1983) .