Suicide (Purple Jumping Man)
Artist	Andy Warhol
Year	1963 (1963)
Type	Silkscreen on canvas
Dimensions	230 cm × 202 cm (90.5 in × 79.5 in)
Location	Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran

Suicide (Purple Jumping Man) is a 1963 silkscreen painting by an American pop artist, Andy Warhol. It is currently in the collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.^[1]

History

During 1970s Iran's oil revenue had increased and the king and queen of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Farah Diba decided to establish a museum of contemporary art in order to modernize their country.^[2][3] Suicide (Purple Jumping Man) was among the paintings that Tony Shafrazi, the Iranian-born American art dealer, bought for the collection of this museum.^[4]

At that time, Andy Warhol was interested in the idea and painted portraits of the king and his wife.^[3]

Style

Suicide (Purple Jumping Man) depicts two images in sequence, recorded by a documentary photographer, silk-screened in black ink on a purple ground.^[5]

According to Tony Shafrazi, Suicide (Purple Jumping Man) is one of the greatest works of Warhol. Shafrazi estimates the painting's value at 70 million dollars.^[4]

Notes

References

• Dehghan, Saeed Kamali (2012-08-01). "Tehran exhibition reveals city's hidden Warhol and Hockney treasures". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
• Polsky, R. (2009). I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon). Other Press. ISBN 978-1-59051-374-3. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
• Salas, C.G.; Institute, Getty Research (2007). The Life & the Work: Art and Biography. Getty Research Institute. Getty Research Institute. ISBN 978-0-89236-823-5. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
• "Masterpiece Basement". The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 2007-12-02. Retrieved 2015-09-24.