The New Spirit (Donald Duck) 357 by Andy Warhol is a screenprint from the artist’s Ads portfolio, published in 1985. The composition shows Donald Duck striding forward with a broom slung over his shoulder, his beak open as if mid-speech. Behind him, four repeated “reflections” of Donald appear inside a curved, multi-panel mirror, creating a rhythmic sense of echo and motion. Warhol sets the figure against a gold ground with a hot pink mirror field, then sharpens the image with bold outlines and saturated reds, yellows, and blues, while the grainy shading gives the surface a vintage, poster-like texture. At the bottom, the title “THE NEW SPIRIT” appears in large lettering, with “In Technicolor” tucked to the right.
Commission and Context: The New Spirit in the Ads Portfolio
The work depicts Donald Duck as drawn from a still in Walt Disney’s short film The New Spirit, a World War II propaganda cartoon encouraging Americans to support the war effort by paying their taxes. Accordingly, Warhol chose it for his Ads portfolio. This series of ten screenprints took commonplace, iconic advertisements and elevated them to the status of art. In doing so, Warhol examines the language of advertising and persuasion already embedded in mass media. The portfolio was commissioned by Ronald Feldman of Feldman Fine Arts, who collaborated with Warhol on several major publications during the 1980s. The series stands as one of Warhol’s most celebrated achievements from the final decade of his life.
Disney, Propaganda, and Pop
No one likes taxes, but many love Disney—especially Warhol, who once called Walt Disney his “own favorite personal hero.” Inspired by a cartoon starring America’s most recognizable duck, The New Spirit (Donald Duck) 357 channels the upbeat tone of wartime propaganda. The original film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1943. It presents Donald Duck as a middle-class American citizen who enthusiastically supports World War II through cheerful and prompt tax payment.
Mass Media and Visual Strategy
In the Ads portfolio, Warhol positions his art as a mirror reflecting the power of mass media in modern society. The New Spirit highlights how government messaging adopts advertising strategies to shape public behavior. Warhol centers the familiar duck and surrounds him with four mirrored repetitions. This framing echoes the multiple reflection sequence seen in the original cartoon. Donald carries a broomstick over his shoulder, a visual nod to Fantasia, released three years earlier. Bright, contrasting colors and softened, crayon-like shading energize the vintage imagery. By the 1980s, Disney’s characters had reached near-mythic status, and Warhol’s reimagining further amplified Donald Duck’s cultural presence.
The New Spirit (Donald Duck) 357 in Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
Across the Ads series, Warhol openly engages the public’s appetite for media and branding. He transforms iconic advertisements into fine art while commenting on capitalism and consumption. By reusing familiar images, Warhol increases their visibility and applies a classic marketing tactic. He repackages the same product with renewed appeal. Alongside The New Spirit, the portfolio includes Chanel, Life Savers, Mobil, Volkswagen, Apple, Blackglama (Judy Garland), Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean), Paramount, and Van Heusen (Ronald Reagan).
Photo credit: Promo for The New Spirit short in Technicolor, produced by Walt Disney, 1942.
