In 1962, artist Walasse Ting shared his dream project with painter Sam Francis: to create an anthology of his poetry illustrated by leading artists of their time. Over the next two years, Ting and Francis recruited Abstract Expressionists and Pop artists—Andy Warhol, Joan Mitchell, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein, among them—to create prints for their collaborative publication, which they playfully titled 1¢ Life. Published in 1964 by E. W. Kornfeld in an edition of 2,000 books, 1¢ Life features 62 color lithographs by 28 iconic artists, including colorful lips by Warhol, abstract splatters by Mitchell, and cartoon girls by Lichtenstein. While complete examples of 1¢ Life can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum, fully-intact versions of the artists’ book rarely arrive on the market today. Instead, individual lithographs from the publication (designed to be loose and removable) offer collectors an accessible way to acquire prints by some of the most iconic talents of the 1960s.
