Top 10 Most Famous Paintings by Andy Warhol
Who was Andy Warhol?
Andy Warhol was a prominent American pop artist, he was one of the pioneers of the 1960's Visual Art Movement "Pop Art".
Warhol utilized daily items in his art, for example, Brillo boxes, soup cans, and even handguns, to fundamentally exhibit his art. He was acclaimed for reforming the idea of art, Warhol legitimized the title given to him, "Pope of Pop Art". His paintings differed from the classical impressions of art. Here are 10 of his most famous pop art paintings.
Best 10 Paintings by Andy Warhol
- Campbell’s Soup Cans by Andy Warhol
- Marilyn Diptych by Andy Warhol
- Eight Elvises by Andy Warhol
- Banana by Andy Warhol
- Superman by Andy Warhol
- Dollar Sign by Andy Warhol
- Gun by Andy Warhol
- Rorschach by Andy Warhol
- Shoes by Andy Warhol
- Lips by Andy Warhol
Campbell’s Soup Cans by Andy Warhol
Warhol showcases 32 works, each speaking to the 32 various soup products offered by Campbell's during that time. This creative work shows Warhol's ability to depict American food culture. He uses the enormous market demand for this product and in doing so, he wisely markets his own art. At the end of 1962, right after he finished Campbell's Soup Cans, Warhol started creating photographic silkscreens for his new works. The printmaking process was initially developed for commercial business use. However, he would combine his own unique style to the process and it would turn into his trademark medium. He would use his art-production techniques to market his art on a commercial scale.
Completed in: 1962
Style: Pop Art
Measurements: 51 cm x 41 cm
Location: Museum of Modern Art
Medium: Synthetic polymer paint
Marilyn Diptych by Andy Warhol
Marilyn Monroe's photo in the 1953 film Niagara was the inspiration for this work of art, which depicts 59 pictures of Monroe. Strikingly, 25 of them showing up in color on the left side. The 25 on the right side have a blurred tone and are displayed in a high black and white contrast.
Warhol clarified:
“In August 62 I started doing silkscreens. I wanted something stronger that gave more of an assembly line effect. With silkscreening you pick a photograph, blow it up, transfer it in glue onto silk, and then roll ink across it so the ink goes through the silk but not through the glue. That way you get the same image, slightly different each time. It was all so simple quick and chancy. I was thrilled with it. When Marilyn Monroe happened to die that month, I got the idea to make screens of her beautiful face the first Marilyns.”
Following Monroe's's demise in August 1962, this artistic creation is considered by numerous art pundits to depict Monroe's mortality.
Completed in: 1962
Style: Pop Art
Measurements: 205.44 cm × 289.56 cm
Location: Tate Gallery
Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas
Eight Elvises by Andy Warhol
The Eight Elvises showcases the influence that black and white photography had on Warhol. This artistic creation is 12 feet wide. The famous American singer Elvis Presle is wearing cowboy attire and faces towards the watchers with a firearm drawn from the holster around his midsection. The original picture is duplicated many times over with each picture overlapping in sections and impressing the entire canvas. This work was sold for an incredible amount of $100 million in 2008, this significant work is one of Warhol's highest selling pictures.
Completed in: 1963
Style: Pop Art
Measurements: 6.5 ft × 12 ft
Location: Private collection
Medium: Silkscreen ink
Banana by Andy Warhol
Warhol was one of the graphic designers of the band "The Velvet Underground" during the 1960's and he created a banana for one of their album covers. The banana has been puzzling rock fans ever since then.
Completed in: 1966
Style: Pop Art
Measurements: 13 × 30 cm
Medium: Screenprint on styrene
Superman by Andy Warhol
Warhol's fable art portfolio contains characters like Mickey Mouse, Dracula, and of course Superman. The notorious superhero figure, Superman, in his red and blue cape is overlapped with another picture. The superman on the right is depicted with light blue lines and dark red lines showcase his outer figure.
Completed in: 1981
Style: Pop Art
Measurements: 96.5 × 96.5 cm
Medium: color screenprint and diamond dust
Dollar Sign by Andy Warhol
Warhol's Dollar Sign Series from 1982 reflects the mass personality, extravagance and riches of Warhol. The print highlights the American dollar sign in neon-brilliant hues. Exhibiting energetic colors and bright visual effects for the observer. This artistic creation was critical in depicting the importance of money held within the American society and the impact that money had on Warhol's life. The pop artist wanted to aggregate his riches to the public's eye. This work portrays his obsession with fame and wealth.
Completed in: 1981
Style: Pop Art
Measurements: 101.6 cm x 82.28 cm
Location: Tate Gallery, Scotland
Medium: Acrylic paint and silkscreen on canvas
Gun by Andy Warhol
The gun portrayed here is a .22 nosed gun. Warhol created Gun a little more than a decade after he was shot by Valerie Solanas by a simillar gun.
Completed in: 1982
Style: Pop Art
Measurements: 177.2 × 228 cm
Medium: Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas
Rorschach by Andy Warhol
This painting was created as part of a series and is over 13 feet fall. The work was inspired by the Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach and the Rorschach test where patients would decipher ten black and white standardized ink blots.
Warhol:
“I thought that when you went to places like hospitals, they tell you to draw and make the Rorschach Tests. I wish I’d known there was a set.”
Warhol created his own set by painting one side of the canvas and then folding it vertically to imprint the other half.
Completed in: 1984
Style: Pop Art
Measurements: 417.2 x 292.1 cm
Location: Museum of Modern art in Europe
Medium: Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Shoes by Andy Warhol
One of Warhol's most punctual paintings, which he created as an art designer depicts various shoes: high heels, siphons, or jeweled stilettos. Warhol worked for a shoe manufacture early in his career as a commercial artist.
Completed in: 1981
Style: Pop Art
Location: Tate Gallery
Medium: Screenprint on paper
Lips by Andy Warhol
Involving 60 sets of lips made out of prints and collections of pictures gently silkscreened onto various tapes, this whole arrangement showcases Warhol's interest with lips.
Completed in: 1975
Style: Pop Art
Location: Artists Project Gallery
Medium: Unique screenprint and tape collage
Brief History of Andy Warhol: Pop Art King
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