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 an announcement for a Warhol exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Six thousand prints were folded and distributed to the public. 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, grids of dollar bills, and the Marilyn Diptych. 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 originated in the 1950s 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 middle-class America in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. Like his famous prints of Campbell’s Soup or his Brillo Boxes, Warhol’s S&H Green Stamps print takes imagery from everyday American life and turns it into Pop art iconography.
