Orangutan 299 by Andy Warhol is a screenprint from his 1983 Endangered Species portfolio. The portrait shows an orangutan gazing forward, its rounded face framed by a rich orange-brown crown and pale yellow fur. Warhol’s color choices emphasize contrast—the creature’s eyes glisten with powder-blue light against the surrounding gold and ochre tones. A bright yellow backdrop flattens the space, creating a striking halo effect that heightens the animal’s almost spiritual presence. The orangutan’s white muzzle and shadowed beard lend the composition a quiet gravity, balancing tenderness and melancholy in equal measure.
Warhol’s Endangered Species and the Primate as Mirror
Warhol created Orangutan 299 as part of his Endangered Species series, commissioned by art dealer and environmental activist Ronald Feldman and his wife, Frayda. Each print depicted an animal marked as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, a decade after the law’s passage.
Warhol’s orangutan, the only primate in the collection, represents one of humanity’s closest relatives. Three species are now recognized—the Bornean, Sumatran, and the recently identified Tapanuli orangutan—each critically endangered. These intelligent apes use tools, form complex societies, and display behaviors that mirror human emotion. Even their name, derived from Old Malay, means “person of the forest.” Warhol’s choice of subject thus carries both symbolic and emotional weight.
The Poetics of Color and Expression
Orangutan 299 may be the most introspective piece in the Endangered Species series. The ape’s round face fills the frame, its gaze cast downward as though lost in thought. Warhol softens his typical Pop palette to evoke melancholy rather than spectacle. Instead of sharp contrasts or neon tones, we see subdued yellows, grays, and browns. A pale white muzzle and chin accentuate the darker beard below, lending a human-like solemnity to the animal’s expression.
Powder-blue highlights shimmer around the eyes, intensifying their reflective depth. Concentric hand-drawn rings of gray surround the pupils, suggesting both awareness and exhaustion. The orangutan’s russet crown grounds the portrait in natural color, while the bright yellow background replaces its jungle habitat with an almost spiritual void. In this way, Warhol transforms absence into atmosphere—the emptiness of extinction framed as Pop iconography.
Orangutan 299 in Warhol’s Endangered Species Series
Within the Endangered Species series, Orangutan 299 stands out for its emotional restraint. Warhol’s treatment of the animal is intimate rather than heroic. Whereas some other subjects—like the Siberian Tiger or Bald Eagle—exude dynamism, the orangutan embodies stillness and contemplation. The piece seems to mourn the vanishing forests of Borneo and Sumatra as much as the species itself.
Created during the 1980s, the print reflects Warhol’s late-career confidence in color, layering, and form. By applying the visual language of fame to animals on the edge of extinction, Warhol blurred the boundaries between empathy and artifice. His orangutan does not demand attention through brightness—it compels it through quiet recognition.
Today, Orangutan 299 remains one of the most affecting works from the Endangered Species portfolio, revered by collectors for its poignancy and balance. It reflects both Warhol’s technical precision and his rare capacity for tenderness within the Pop Art idiom.
Photo credit: Brownie Harris, photograph of Andy Warhol with Endangered Species screenprints, The Factory, NYC, 1982.
