| Revolver Gallery | |
| Logo Image: | Revolver_Gallery_Logo.jpg |
| Address: | 8641 W Sunset Blvd |
| Location: | West Hollywood, California |
| Type: | Art gallery |
| Website: | https://revolverwarholgallery.com/ |
Revolver Gallery is a Los Angeles-based art gallery with a one-artist program focused on Andy Warhol's pop art career. With over 400 Warhols in its collection, Revolver houses the largest gallery-owned collection of Andy Warhol's artwork world-wide.[1] [2]
Revolver was established in Beverly Hills in 2012 by entrepreneur Ron Rivlin who began collecting Warhol after learning that a friend realized a 600% return from a Warhols purchased 10 years earlier. Rivlin then started buying "everything he liked." In a 2015 interview, he said, “My rule was, if I would put it up behind my sofa, I would buy it.” Revolver is notable for exclusively dealing Warhol's work. Now, with over 400 original prints and paintings in its collection, Revolver Gallery has the largest gallery-owned collection of Warhol works in the entire world.[3]
A small gallery at launch, Revolver exhibited Warhol pieces through traveling exhibits such as Andy Warhol: Icons & Symbols. The exhibit opened at L’Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills and later moved to the Malibu Lumber Yard Gallery. Other exhibits included Andy Warhol's Ten Prolific Jews, Andy's Socialites and Gotti on Trial.[4]
In 2017, Revolver moved from Beverly Hills to a larger gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. Its first exhibit, Andy Warhol Revisited, opened on February 22, 2017, the 30th anniversary of Warhol's death.[5] In addition to Warhol's work, the Bergamot location exhibited a work done in collaboration with Keith Haring and a tribute to Warhol by Deborah Kass.[6] Revolver subsequently moved to West Hollywood.[7]
The Revolver collection includes Warhol's 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Andy Mouse (four original screenprints by Keith Haring, depicting Andy Warhol as Mickey Mouse on a dollar bill), Campbell's Tomato Juice Box (a 1964 silkscreen ink and house paint on plywood), and the John Gotti Unique Portfolio (Warhol's four unique screenprints by commission for the cover of Time in 1986).[8] [9] [10]
Notable celebrities who have visited Revolver include: Bruno Mars, Dave Navarro, Ryan Tedder, Coldplay, Jared Leto, and Billy Morrison.[11]
Revolver's exhibition titled A Different Idea of Love opened in Yaletown's Maison Ai warehouse in early 2015. The showcase included rare works from Revolver's collection, private owners, and The Andy Warhol Foundation For the Arts. Works on display in the show included silkscreens of Elizabeth Taylor, rare silkscreens of Muhammad Ali, and Warhol's silkscreens of shoes. The show was free to the public and was even extended to stay beyond its intended run. At the time, A Different Idea of Love was the largest Warhol show in Canada's history. It was later topped by Revolver's Warhol Revisited: A Mirror for Today that was held in Toronto the same year.[12] [13] [14]
Toronto-born Rivlin curated the 2015 exhibit Andy Warhol Revisited: A Mirror For Today in the Yorkville neighborhood of Toronto, Canada. A collaboration with museums, the Andy Warhol Foundation, Christie's, and private collectors, it included more than 120 pieces from the Revolver collection. It was the largest grouping of Warhol's work ever shown in Canada.[15]
Andy Warhol Revisited: A Mirror for Today ran six months in 2015. It included famous Warhol works such as his “Campbell’s Soup Cans” series in addition to silkscreen portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Mick Jagger, and Elizabeth Taylor. Described as a “modern day extension of Warhol’s idea that pop is for everyone,” the exhibit, in addition to displaying Warhol's work, featured interactive elements such as an integrated mobile app and an audio tour. Prior to Revolver's show, the last major Warhol exhibition was hosted by Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg in 2006 at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Revolver's exhibition drew in more than 50,000 visitors between March and April alone.[16] [17]
Between February 11 and August 27 of 2017, Revolver Gallery launched their exhibition Andy Warhol: Revisited | Thirty Years Later. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Andy Warhol's death, the exhibit included over 200 works of art in rotation. Ron Rivlin, curator and founder of Revolver Gallery described the exhibition as “[encapsulating] the artist’s fascination with glamour, fame, money, celebrity and tragedy through his artistic creations.”[18] The exhibition featured rare and sought-after works such as Warhol's Marilyn Monroe silkscreens, a rare Andy Mouse portfolio by artist Keith Haring in collaboration with Warhol, and even Warhol's 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow (complete with original registration). Andy Warhol: Revisited | Thirty Years Later marked the first time that Warhol's car has ever been displayed publicly.[19] [20] [21] [22]
Andy Warhol: Revisited | Thirty Years Later was celebrated during its initial run and was even visited by actor Jared Leto who had begun preparing for his role as Andy Warhol in a currently untitled biopic of the famed artist. Leto will star and produce the film with Michael De Luca also set to produce; Terence Winter has been tapped to write the screenplay, which will be an adaptation of Victor Bockris' book Warhol: The Biography. [23] [24]
In April 2022, Revolver released its second Andy Warhol Print Market Report, titled WARHOL LIVES, in a limited edition run of only 1,000 copies. The 120 page report, which aims to "demystify the Warhol market for investors and collectors" was published and released via Amazon, and quickly became the no.1 best seller in several categories, including Art Prints, Business of Art, and Artists' Books.[25] The information on Warhol's market presented in the book is deduced from analyses of public auction records and art price databases. WARHOL LIVES also includes an updated version of the Warhol Print Market Index, an original financial index created by Revolver in order to compare the performance of Warhol's art market with that of other stock market indexes such as the Dow Jones.
In a newsletter released to promote its publication, Revolver called the 2022 report "the definitive guide to collecting Warhol prints" and a "holistic overview of Warhol's print market today." In that same newsletter, as well as on the book's Amazon page, Revolver said that in the report, author and Revolver Gallery owner Ron Rivlin explains "how Warhol print prices are determined, their average rate of increase, and why the majority of Warhol prints sell for above their high estimate; how the market contracted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and why it enjoyed a historically strong return in 2021." Some of the major takeaways included in the book, as presented on the back cover, include the following:
Revolver's Warhol Print Market Report continues to be the only report of its kind, providing a wealth of specialized information all about the current state of Andy Warhol's market, with additional literature about the artist's career, authentications, recent efforts by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and recent and upcoming Warhol exhibitions.
All of the proceeds from book sales of WARHOL LIVES were donated to UNICEF.
Revolver Gallery released the third edition of the Andy Warhol Print Market Report on March 1, 2023, titled "The Royal Warhol Year." The title and book cover reference Warhol's Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom screen prints from the artist's Reigning Queens series, which experienced a dramatic rise in value following the death of the Queen on September 8, 2022. The following November, one of Warhol's Queen Elizabeth prints sold for more than $800,000, setting a new record for the most valuable Warhol print ever sold at auction.[26]
The third report followed the footsteps of the 2022 edition, presenting comprehensive data related to Warhol's print sales over the past year, making "value-adding projections," and "discussing themes in the Warhol market that are crucial for collectors and investors to understand so that they can make informed decisions."[27] Unlike the first edition—a free PDF made available for download via Revolver's website—the second and third edition of Revolver's market report were published on Amazon and made available in soft and hardcover copies, with 2023's edition made available for Amazon Kindle users.
Highlights of the third market report include the updated version of the Warhol Print Market Index (WPMI), Revolver's original financial index used to compare the performance of Warhol's print market with that of other stock market indices; a new selection of "prints to watch," which accurately predicted the rise in value of the Queen Elizabeth prints in 2022's report; a review of the Andy Warhol Foundation's collaborations with brands and businesses during 2022; and an analysis of the Supreme Court case between Lynn Goldsmith and the Andy Warhol Foundation over the copyright of Warhol's Prince silkscreens and the potential consequences of the ruling on artist copyright laws, with which the book closes.
As with Revolver's 2022 report, all of the proceeds from sales of the book were donated to charity, specifically the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.