THE LOST WARHOLS | KAREN BYSTEDT

AMERICAN ARTIST
KAREN BYSTEDT
AND THE LOST WARHOLS

Karen Bystedt, was a student at New York University who famously called Andy Warhol to ask him to be a model for a photo shoot as a fashion model. Warhol agreed, and the resulting photos became the subject of an international art collection called “The Lost Warhols.” The shoot is significant because it is one of the few instances of Warhol modeling for someone else’s camera, and the images are considered to be unique within the context of Warhol’s larger body of work.

The Lost Warhols artworks by the young photographer/artist who conceptualized turning the legendary artist into the “ART” after finding 10 of 36 of her lost negatives in 2011 add to the cultural and historical context of the shoot.
Artist Proofs of original photographs are part of the permanent collections of The Warhol Museum and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo, Norway, as well as in the private collections of Prince Andrew of Monaco, the Hearst Foundation, and many other notable collectors.

“Everything I do is a hobby.”
Andy Warhol circa 1982

AMERICAN ARTIST KAREN BYSTEDT
AND THE LOST WARHOLS

One of the first woman street artists to proliferate a male-dominated space, Karen Bystedt’s works were collected by internationally renowned private and public collections: As seen in now historical exhibits that define street art next To Retna, Cleon Peterson, Big Sleeps, Bradley Theodore, Gregory Siff, Add Fuel, Producer BDB and Speedy Graffito is Karen Bystedt.

In the king’s list of names, you’ll find this ingenious woman.
Karen Bystedt’s photographs of Andy Warhol have transcended from portraits taken by an NYU student to a historical image used as the concluding image in Blake Gopnik’s definitive biopic, WARHOL Harper Collins ( 2020). Bystedt photographed and immortalized Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, and Djimon Hounsou in her book Before They Were Famous well before creating a massive contemporary archive re-identifying Warhol’s contributions with her contributions to the street art world, opening the conversation of women breaking barriers in art, hip hop and pop culture today.

See the article in Art Market Magazine Issue #78