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The 1960s were the quintessential decade of rebellion and non-conformity in Western culture, and they found no more complete an embodiment than Andy Warhol, the defining exponent of pop art. Warhol famously commented that his life was a TV show to which he was merely a spectator, and his work is concerned with the reproduction and consumption of imagery in late capitalist society, dramatising and questioning notions of spectatorship and desire. It was fitting then that Warhol’s practice blurred the boundaries between art and life so comprehensively: his public image and statements fitted in seamlessly with his screen-printed celebrity portraits and the apparent emotional detachment of works which rejected conventional ideas of expressiveness and originality. Declaring he wanted to be a ‘machine,’ Warhol’s embrace of commercial imagery, as most famously encapsulated by his Campbell’s soup can paintings, provided a powerful commentary on connections between mass production and desire, while his colourful portraits of figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Muhammed Ali articulated the hypnotic effect of the idea of stardom upon the American masses. With his 1963 canvas breaking the mythical $100m barrier in a 2099 private transaction, Warhol’s reputation as one of the most alluring figures on the art market looks set to continue.