03 August 2024

Andy Warhol's Computer Portrait of Debbie Harry Goes on Sale for a Cool $26 Million

There's no specific price listed for the portrait, but the Post have speculated that it could sell "for potential millions."

Andy Warhol’s Long-Lost Portrait of Blondie Singer Debbie Harry Resurfaces in Delaware

BY FRANCESCA ATON
July 31, 2024 1:17pm

American singer, songwriter, and actress Debbie Harry and American artist Andy Warhol. GETTY IMAGES

An Andy Warhol portrait of Blondie singer Debbie Harry that was thought to be lost has resurfaced in rural Delaware. The 1985 portrait, along with a signed disk of 10 digital image files by Warhol, is now being made available for sale, although the New York Post, which first reported the news, did not specify where.

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4 days ago

Exclusive | Long-lost Andy Warhol portrait of Debbie Harry up for sale

When Warhol was a brand ambassador for the now defunct tech company Commodore, he created the artworks on an early Amiga 1000 home computer as part of a promotion at New York’s Lincoln Center.

In her 2019 memoir Face It, Harry described how her portrait came to fruition:

“Andy called and asked me to model for a portrait he was going to create live, at Lincoln Center, as a promotion for the Commodore Amiga computer. It was a pretty amazing event.”

. . . Harry has said of the works,

“I think there are only two copies of this computer-generated Warhol in existence and I have one of them.”

Now, the location of the second portrait has been revealed. For nearly 40 years, it was displayed in the home of Commodore’s digital technician Jeff Bruette, who taught the artist how to use the computer.

Bruette is planning a private sale of the Harry portrait and original Amiga disk containing eight images Warhol made during the Amiga World interview, plus an experimental image created during the production of the MTV show Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, Page Six reported on Monday.

“It’s been almost 40 years since I worked with Warhol—it was a life-changing assignment,” Bruette said.

“For just as long, any time someone has seen the portrait of Debbie hanging on my wall, or learned that I was ‘that guy who worked with Andy,’ especially after the recent explosion of NFTs and digital art, anyone who’s heard the story has been completely riveted. I thought it was time the world got to interact with this extraordinary artwork the way it was meant to be experienced.”

Bruette added that “parting with this collection now gives me the chance to help find it the right home. And, to be honest, could make retirement just a little bit more comfortable.”

Though the price for the Harry portrait remains undisclosed, but the Post speculated that it could sell “for potential millions.”