Made in 1974, the ‘Flowers’ series is a sudden diversion away from Warhol’s typical stylistic way of working at the time.
Throughout this series Warhol chose to screenprint his freehand line drawings and then colour them in by hand, making each print unique, whereas before, Warhol had delighted in removing all trace of his presence from his work.
The series reminds us of what a talented draughtsman Warhol was as a commercial illustrator during the 1950s. The freehand lines and hand-inked bursts of vivid colour used to capture these still-life flowers recall Warhol’s earlier offset lithographs from the 1950s, such as ‘25 Cats Name[d] Sam and One Blue Pussy’ and ‘Wild Raspberries’ which are also featured in this new exhibition.
