Willem de Kooning Spoleto, from the collection of Earl and Camilla McGrath 1974

This dazzling silkscreen is the scarce, very limited edition hand signed and numbered rare silkscreen edition; (NOT to be confused with the offset lithograph poster which is on different paper and unsigned.) The Spoleto Festival commissioned famous international artists to design their promotional posters. This is part of the rare Deluxe Edition silkscreen which was marketed separately to VIPs and major Festival donors - and rarely appears on the open market. It is a bright, strong impression of this large and scarce silkscreen. This work was acquired from the Estate of the legendary Earl and Camilla McGrath. (Camilla died in 2007. and Earl died in 2016 at the age of 84.) McGrath was a Hollywood script writer turned Atlantic Records music executive turned blue chip art gallery owner. His wife, Camilla Pecci-Blunt McGrath was an Italian countess whose family were art patrons of the European Avante Garde. In remembering Earl McGrath for Vanity Fair magazine, Warhol's editor and confidant Bob Colacello interviewed the many celebrities and artists who adored McGrath: "He was the last of a breed, one of the last great gentlemen and bohemians,” says Harrison Ford.."; He was the funniest man I have ever known,” declares Jerry Hall, whose friendship with McGrath went back to 1975, when she was the girlfriend of Bryan Ferry and he was vice president of Atlantic Records. “He also had a huge heart and was a magnet for us all in New York and Los Angeles.”; “Earl was so brilliantly irreverent,” says Anjelica Huston, who credits McGrath with introducing her to her late husband, the sculptor Robert Graham, who showed at his Los Angeles gallery; “He wasn’t always the jokester,” notes Brice Marden, who frequently dined tête-à-tête with McGrath. “He also had a keen eye and a kind of natural wisdom, albeit with a slightly warped attitude towards things. I just found him a really good person to hang out with. Whenever I had some deep question, I always wanted to consult Earl. It was reassuring to hear what he had to say.”...So who was this Earl McGrath? Unknown to the general public (and liking it that way), he was very well known to the very well known, the ultimate insider equally at home in the upper echelons of music, art, letters, and entertainment. Among the regulars who flocked to the salon-like lunches and dinners he and his wife, Countess Camilla Pecci-Blunt, a descendant of Pope Leo XIII, gave at their apartment across from Carnegie Hall and their house in West Hollywood were Andy Warhol; Mick Jagger; Gore Vidal; Audrey Hepburn; Anita Loos; Cy Twombly; Larry Rivers; Francesco and Alba Clemente; Prince Rupert Loewenstein; Connie Wald; Wendy Stark; Michelle Phillips; Julian Sands; Annie Leibovitz; Jann and Jane Wenner; Sonny and Gita Mehta; Terry Southern; Fernanda Eberstadt; Wes Anderson; Prince Michael of Greece and his wife, Marina Karella (who showed at McGrath’s gallery); Christopher Isherwood; Isabella Rossellini; Bernardo Bertolucci; and Dennis Hopper..."  (Below is a link to the VF article)

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/01/earl-mcgrath-music-producer-art-gallerist

SIGNATURE

Hand signed and numbered from the limited edition of only 150 on the recto (front)

PROVENANCE

 Estate of the legendary Earl and Camilla McGrath. (Camilla died in 2007. and Earl died in 2016 at the age of 84.) McGrath was a Hollywood script writer turned Atlantic Records music executive turned blue chip art gallery owner. His wife, Camilla Pecci-Blunt McGrath was an Italian countess whose family were art patrons of the European AvantGarde