BOND No. 9, a high-class maker of New York City-centric luxury fragrances, just announced the introduction of “Andy Warhol Silver Factory”, the newest addition to its line of fragrances. Significantly, the Andy Warhol Foundation licenses Andy Warhol Silver Factory.
For those of you old enough to have been in the same room with Andy, the association with a fragrance might seem a bit odd. But licensing provides cash, and the Foundation has surely become associated with cash. As the owner of a very significant inventory of Warhol works, and holder of the authentication “key”, the Foundation played a very significant, at times controversial, role in the contemporary market for Warhol works. But now, with the foundation’s inventory very significantly diminished by the rapid rate at which it has been selling works in the past several years, fragrance may prove to be the new “pop” for the foundation.
From the point of view of Bond No.9 and its brilliant creator, Laurice Rahme, the marriage is very clever. Warhol is hot, it’s the party season, and most people associate the Pittsburgh born artist with New York City. People seem to be willing to pay big bucks for anything bearing Warhol’s name, so why not a luxury, high priced fragrance?
The more interesting question is “what does this marriage presage for the Warhol art market? The foundation played a very active role in the market for Warhol works: it sold works, mostly to dealers and top tier collectors, authenticated works, and influenced the channels of distribution, by decreeing who could buy directly from the foundation and in some cases who could buy from those who bought from the foundation. For a time, hardly any Warhol work of significance could change hands without some Foundation involvement.
Any reduction of the Foundation’s role will likely benefit the art market, the dealer community and collectors because the market will behave more freely and competitively. The Warhol market might even acknowledge the importance of scholarship and curatorial insight. Even collectors like Jose Mugrabi, who claims to own in excess of 800 original Warhols, don’t combine their ownership with the power to authenticate works. Consequently, these two sources of power will be diffused among more players.
Many art world denizens have long regarded the Warhol Foundation to be far more concerned with the commerce in art than with Warhol’s place in art history. Now that the Foundation has partnered in the launch of a Warhol fragrance, one can say that they have indeed learned something from Andy and have taken his commercialism to heart. Hopefully, the void created by the Foundation’s now open commercial focus will be filled by serious art scholars, critics, and collectors so that we can all get a more balanced appraisal of Warhol, the artist.
