S&H Green Stamps 9 by Andy Warhol is a lithograph made up of rows and columns of S&H Green Stamps. The repetitive nature of the print’s layout is a technique that Warhol used frequently (i.e. Dollar Signs, Campbell’s Soup Cans, Cows). This piece was published in 1965 to be used as announcements for a Warhol exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Six thousand prints were folded up and passed out. Warhol’s S&H Green Stamps 9 is an early example of edge-to-edge repetition, a technique Warhol also used in his soup can multiples and grids of dollar bills. In this particular piece, stamps continue over the upper edge, implying a continuum.
S&H Green Stamps 9 by Andy Warhol as Part of His Larger Body of Work
S&H Green Stamps originate from the 1950’s and were used as coupons that consumers would receive for various purchases, thus rewarding them for spending money. The coupons could later be applied to purchase more products. The S&H coupon program is very much representative of the middle class in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Like his famous prints of Campbell’s Soup or his Brillo Boxes, Warhol’s prints of the S&H Green Stamps takes imagery from everyday American life and turns it into Pop art iconography.
