Andy Warhol Flowers (Hand-Coloured) (F & S II.110-119) Portfolio For Sale

Flowers is a portfolio of ten screenprints produced in 1974, hand-coloured with Dr Martins watercolour dyes. The screenprints are a coloured version of a monochrome portfolio released in the same year. 

These prints are particularly pertinent in tracing Warhol’s groundings as an illustrator. Before Warhol was successful as an artist, he drew for magazines and clothing shops. Seen here, the artist employed a ‘blotted line’ technique, which consisted of inking over already drawn lines with fountain pen. Here the artist has gone further in embellishing the different flowers with colours which contrast with the dark etching. The flowers, from an orange sunflower to a pastel rose, are charming whilst being minimalistic. Unlike the gaudiness of Warhol’s larger scale screenprints, the plain background allows the unassuming subject matter to take up space.  

Over time and growing scholarship, Warhol’s drawings have commanded a larger and well-deserved appreciation in his acclaimed career, with the prestigious New York Academy of Art having dedicated an exhibition to them ‘Andy Warhol: By Hand, Drawings from the 1950s-1980s' in 2019.