Dollar Sign (Quadrant) Complete Portfolio by Andy Warhol (1982) transforms the symbol of money into pure Pop Art energy. The portfolio includes two screenprints, each divided into four quadrants featuring large, hand-drawn dollar signs layered over bold fields of color. FS II.283 shows a more structured version of the symbol. However, FS II.284 employs rougher, more expressive lines that give the composition a sense of motion and tension. Moreover, the rich contrasts of red, blue, yellow, and green turn this familiar icon into an abstract study of value, fame, and visual language.
Wealth as Symbol and Spectacle
Warhol’s fascination with money was both personal and philosophical. He once declared, “I like money on the wall.” With these works, he made that statement literal. In this way, Dollar Sign (Quadrant) takes one of capitalism’s simplest emblems and elevates it into a recurring motif of contemporary art. Through repetition, Warhol examines how symbols of wealth dominate culture, advertising, and identity. Each quadrant amplifies this obsession, creating a rhythmic pattern that reflects the circulation of money itself.
Unlike many of Warhol’s other works, which reinterpreted existing media or borrowed from pop culture, the Dollar Sign series is based on an original drawing by the artist. This fact makes it a rare instance where Warhol used his own hand as the source of the image. Consequently, the series feels unusually direct and personal. It stands as an unfiltered expression of his fixation with fame, success, and material desire.
Dollar Sign (Quadrant) in Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
Within Warhol’s career, the Dollar Sign (Quadrant) prints serve as distilled symbols of his worldview. Just as his Campbell’s Soup Cans and Coca-Cola bottles reflected consumer culture, these prints confront the ultimate commodity—money itself. Through his signature silkscreen technique, Warhol reimagined the dollar not as a transaction, but as an artwork. As a result, the image becomes flattened, multiplied, and aestheticized.
In addition, the two prints, FS II.283 and FS II.284, represent one of Warhol’s most direct meditations on value and its representation. They are not merely about commerce. Instead, they explore how society sees, sells, and even venerates wealth. Therefore, Dollar Sign (Quadrant) distills the paradox of Pop Art itself—a critique of materialism that still gleams with its allure.
Finally, the portfolio affirms Warhol’s ability to turn the ordinary into the iconic. For instance, he elevates the simplest of symbols—the dollar sign—into an emblem of modern art’s entanglement with money and fame. In this way, Warhol captures both the spirit and the contradiction of the American dream.
Photo credit: Andy Warhol with Dollar Sign painting, New York, 1982. © Santi Visalli. © 2022 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
