Executed in a crisply registered palette of bright pink flowers against a bold black and white background, the Flowers Painting embodies one of Pop Art’s most iconic bodies of work: Andy Warhol’s Flowers. In the half-century since its creation, Warhol’s Flowers have infiltrated popular culture as a touchstone of classic American Pop.
During the summer of 1964, Warhol executed canvases portraying this exact composition in formats measuring twenty-four, forty-eight, and eighty-two inches square. These were intended for an exhibition with his new dealer Leo Castelli. Warhol responded to the architecture of each room and installed the works in repetitive grids, creating an immersive environment of this signature motif.
In 2018, the Whitney Museum of American Art revisited this display scheme in its retrospective Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again. Works from the Flowers series—among others—were installed in a gallery wallpapered floor to ceiling with similarly serial reproductions of Warhol’s art. This immersive, almost dizzying environment recalled the original setting in which these paintings debuted, grounding them in their historical moment while reaffirming the enduring appeal of this iconic and symbolic series.
Provenance
Irving Galleries Fine Arts, Palm Beach.
Private Collection, Illinois (acquired from the above in 1978)
Sotheby’s, New York, 14 May 2003, Lot 198 (consigned by the above)
Private Collection, United States
Sotheby’s, New York, 6 March 2020, Lot 24 (consigned by the above)
Acquired by the above sale by Revolver Gallery, California
Photo credit: Andy Warhol silk-screening Flowers, 1965-7. Photo by © Stephen Shore.
