In 1979, Andy Warhol created a series of Space Fruit, using pop art to defamiliarize typically common and mundane images of fruit. Space Fruit: Apples 200 epitomizes Warhol’s fascination with creating an abstract still life image. These types of subjects allowed Warhol to concentrate on compositional aspects of the drawings such as shape, color, shadow, and space. Warhol prints take distinctive images of apples on top of a vibrant background with unrealistic shadows in order to create interest out of the banality of everyday things.Â
Space Fruit: Apples 200 as Part of Andy Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
This series marks a shift of Warhol’s interest from commercial products to historically more typical subjects of art and still life. Warhol takes the same approach to his Space Fruit series as he does to his Flowers and Skulls series, taking traditional props and isolating each element in some of his most famous portfolios. The use of color and abstract composition throughout the series displays an almost cubist approach to art––taking something familiar and presenting it in a different light. Each subject in the portfolio is almost recognizable as the fruit being portrayed; however, they become more abstract and obscured throughout the series, making the viewer wonder if the subject is even fruit at all.
