Flowers 66 by Andy Warhol is a screenprint from the artist’s 1970 Flowers Complete Portfolio. The composition presents four hibiscus blossoms in vivid red-orange, golden yellow, and soft pink against a dense field of electric blue, hot pink, and green grass. Warhol flattens the flowers into bold color shapes, while the tangled background adds movement and visual noise. The square format allows the image to feel both decorative and unstable. As a result, Flowers 66 turns a familiar floral subject into a bright, high-energy Pop image.
The Origins of Warhol’s Flowers Series
Warhol once said, “I always notice flowers.” Throughout his career, the artist drew from the visible world around him, whether he focused on movie stars, consumer products, or natural subjects. However, the Flowers series marked a clear shift from the darker tone of his early 1960s work. Curator Henry Geldzahler encouraged Warhol to move away from death and disaster imagery and try flowers instead.
The source image came from a photograph by Patricia Caulfield that appeared in Modern Photography magazine in 1964. Warhol cropped, enlarged, and repeated the image through silkscreen. Consequently, the hibiscus blossoms lost much of their botanical detail and became simplified graphic forms. Caulfield later sued Warhol for unauthorized use of her photograph, which pushed him to rely more often on his own source photography.
Color, Repetition, and Flowers 66
Flowers 66 shows Warhol at his most vivid and direct. Red, pink, yellow, and blue collide across the surface, creating a restless field of color. Meanwhile, the grasses behind the flowers seem almost as active as the blossoms themselves. This tension gives the print a sense of movement that feels different from a traditional still life.
At the same time, Warhol keeps the composition simple. Each print in the portfolio uses the same basic arrangement, yet the colorways change the emotional effect. In Flowers 66, the bright palette makes the image feel bold, youthful, and almost psychedelic. The work also reflects the visual language of the late 1960s, when floral imagery appeared across fashion, design, and countercultural graphics.
Flowers 66 in Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
Although Warhol became famous for works such as Campbell’s Soup Cans and Marilyn Monroe, he returned to natural subjects throughout his career. Portfolios such as Space Fruit, Sunset, and later floral works show his interest in nature as a repeated image. Moreover, Flowers 66 reveals how easily he could turn a traditional subject into a modern icon.
The Flowers series also relates to Warhol’s Death and Disaster works through contrast. Instead of car crashes, electric chairs, or media tragedy, Warhol chose beauty, color, and repetition. Even so, the flowers remain detached and commercialized, as if nature itself has become a product. Collectors value Flowers 66 for its vibrant palette, iconic subject, and central place in one of Warhol’s most beloved print portfolios.
Photo credit: Andy Warhol silk-screening Flowers, 1965–67. Photo © Stephen Shore.
Andy Warhol with assistants Philip Fagan and Gerard Malanga, The Factory, New York, 1964. Photo © Ugo Mulas Estate.
