Name: Cantaloupes I (F. & S. II.201)
Brand: Andy Warhol
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Andy Warhol's Cantaloupes I (F. & S. II.201) (signed) is estimated to be worth between £11,000 and £16,000. This screenprint, created in 1979, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 9%. This work has an auction history of 9 total sales since its entry to the market on 8th February 2005. In the last 12 months, the average selling price was £10,342 across 1 sale. Over the past five years, the hammer price has ranged from £7,258 in October 2020 to £15,082 in October 2022. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 150.

Meaning & Analysis

Andy Warhol‘s signed screen print Cantaloupes I (F. & S. II.201) depicts six photographed and coloured cantaloupes bunched together. Released in 1979 as a limited edition of 150, this print is part of Warhol's Space Fruit series.

Within this print, the cantaloupes have been illuminated from the left, and their shadows, intensified with aqua and black drawn-in outlines, extend upwards off the right side of the picture frame. The composition is divided into two sections by two darker rectangles, one of which contains four of the fruits. This weighting tips the composition off balance, giving the “space fruit” a sense of whimsy and defiance of gravity.

The enigmatic series Space Fruit is a rare series of still life for the artist, who was normally occupied by prints of celebrities such as Marilyn, Jackie Kennedy, or even the Queen. Here, the collage-like images of fruit become heavily abstracted. This image, one of two prints of cantaloupes in the series, heightens the texture of the fruit’s rind, making it almost unrecognisable. Warhol began the series Space Fruit in 1977 in collaboration with printer Rupert Jasen Smith. He published the series in 1979.