(Pittsburgh 1928–1987 New York)
Jack Nicklaus, 1977, acrylic, silkscreen, ink on canvas, on the reverse with the stamps of The Estate of Andy Warhol and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York, numbered with archive number PO 41.049, numbered again on the stretcher, 25.4 x 25.4 cm, on stretcher

Provenance:
Estate of the artist
Private collection, Florence
Galerie Hafenrichter, Nurnberg
Private collection, Germany - acquired from the above

Literature:
Catalogue Raisonné, Andy Warhol, Paintings, 1976–1978, no. 3846

This small-format work by Andy Warhol from 1977 is a portrait of one of the best golfers of the 20th century - US golfer Jack Nicklaus, also known as The Golden Bear.

From the early 1960s until the late 1980s, Nicklaus was regarded as one of the best golfers in the world. With 18 major victories under his belt, he is still the most successful player in his sport.

This portrait was created as part of Warhol’s so-called Athletes series, commissioned by his friend and art collector Richard Weisman. It includes a total of ten portraits of famous athletes of the time, such as Muhammad Ali, Chris Evert and Pelé.
It is an interesting departure from Warhol’s usual society portraits and occupies a rather idiosyncratic position in his extensive oeuvre.

Warhol had little interest in sports and its heros, and did not choose the protagonists of the series himself, leaving this task to Weisman. The latter knew many athletes personally, which made it easy to persuade them to pose for Warhol. Warhol eventually met each of the top athletes in person, and took photographs of them with his Polaroid Big Shot camera. The silkscreen portraits were subsequently created on the basis of these images. Each portrait is executed in various colors, and captures both the glamour and personality of the individual athlete.

Of the around 60 Polaroids Warhol made of Jack Nicklaus with his Big Shot camera, he selected four and processed them further into canvases.
On the basis on the photographs of Nicklaus with his golf club, Warhol ultimately created 15 original portraits of the athlete.