Hunt Slonem, Untitled (Duck), 1991-2011

Hunt Slonem

Untitled (Duck), hand signed three times and inscribed to Andy Warhol muse and socialite Monique Van Vooren

Watercolor painting on paper

Unique

Hand-signed by artist, Signed and dated recto, signed again verso; inscribed "Monique, a duck to remember your house by.Thank you for the birthday Love Hunt 2011"

Measurements:
Framed:
12.5" x 10.5" x .5"
Unframed
9.75" x 8"
This work is hand signed three times by Hunt Slonem: once on the recto, once on the verso, and once following the written inscription. Provenance is impeccable as this cherished gift from Hunt Slonem was acquired from the estate of the actress and socialite Monique Van Vooren. The work was painted in 1991 (and dated 1991 on the recto), and was gifted by the artist to Monique in 2011, bearing a dated dedication verso. Monique Van Vooren (1927-2020) was a film and stage actress who enjoyed a long career with diverse roles ranging from the 1960s television series Batman to Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein and Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. Belgian-born and a champion ice skater and beauty queen in her youth, Van Vooren arrived in New York in 1950 to study philosophy on a Fulbright scholarship. Outside of her acting career, Van Vooren recorded the album Mink in Hi-Fi in 1958 and published the novel Night Sanctuary In 1983. But it was through her circle of friends that many came to know Monique Van Vooren. Warhol devoted a chapter in 1979's Exposures to Monique Van Vooren and her great friend Sylvia Miles, memorably writing: "Monique lives on the East Side in a white brick high-rise with lots of doormen and closed-circuit TV. She has a four-and-a-half room apartment covered in zebra skin rugs and wallpapered with photographs of herself with famous men. Monique and Nureyev. Monique and Erik Bruhn. Monique and Valentino. There's a signed photograph of JFK on her baby grand piano. There's a mirror over her bed." Warhol cast Van Vooren as Baroness Frankenstein in his 1973 adaptation Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein, now a cult classic, directed by Paul Morrissey and starring Udo Kier and Joe Dallesandro. Warhol and Van Vooren would be photographed dozens of times together in the 1970s and 80s. See Andy Warhol, Exposures, Grosset & Dunlap, 1979, p. 176