PAINTINGS
5 MOST FAMOUS PAINTINGS BY ANDY WARHOL
Andy Warhol was an American artist who was the leading figure of the Pop Art movement. Such was his impact that he is called the Pope of Pop Art. The subject of his works varied from iconic American objects to celebrities to fictional characters to traditional subjects like flowers. His paintings revolutionized the perception of art. Here are 10 of the most famous pop art paintings by the pre-eminent pop artist.
BANANA
In the 1960s Andy Warhol was associated with the band The Velvet Underground and he became their manager in 1965. This print of banana featured on the cover of the debut album of the band, titled The Velvet Underground & Nico. The album was called the “most prophetic rock album ever made” and ranked 13th greatest album of all time by the Rolling Stone magazine; and Warhol’s Banana became one of the most recognizable pieces of pop artwork.
MICKEY MOUSE
Warhol created a Myths-series which contained a series of silkscreened portraits of ten fictional characters taken from popular culture. All the portraits were inlaid with diamond dust which made them shine with soft, wavering light. Disney’s Mickey Mouse was one of the characters he picked and its prints became hugely popular.
MAO
Warhol began painting portraits of Mao in 1972, the year U.S. President Richard Nixon made his first visit to China. He created hundreds of images of Mao using a photograph from Mao’s famous Little Red Book. This huge painting is about 15 feet tall and is the most well-known Mao portrait by Warhol. Warhol has used strong, colorful brushstrokes applying garish colors like makeup on Mao’s face. It exhibits Warhol at his most painterly self and is considered one of the best paintings created by him.
COCA COLA
A symbol of modern mass consumerism, the Coca Cola bottle is an iconic American object which caught the fancy of Warhol. In fact one of his most famous quotes revolves around it. Warhol created several works on the Coke bottle. Coca Cola (3) is a hand painted work unlike his later silkscreens. The painting was sold for $57.2 million making it one of Warhol’s most expensive paintings ever sold.
FLOWERS SERIES
This is one of the seven monumental-scale paintings from Andy Warhol’s famous Flowers series. The source image for the series was photographs published in the 1964 issue of Modern Photography taken by the nature photographer Patricia Caulfield. At a time when Warhol was concentrating on consumerism, celebrity, death and disasters, the series was a departure as it depicted a more abstract and philosophical subject. The paintings were immediately sold out when they were put on show.
BIG ELECTRIC CHAIR
In 1963, the last two executions by electric chair in New York State took place. The same year Andy Warhol obtained a photograph of the empty execution chamber. He used it to create a series of paintings depicting the electric chair as a metaphor of death and thereby commenting on the controversy surrounding the death penalty in the 1960s. Big Electric Chair is the most famous painting of the series.