Flowers (Warhol)

Flowers is a series of silkscreen paintings by American artist Andy Warhol. Based on a photograph of hibiscus blossoms published in Modern Photography magazine, the works feature brightly colored, flatly rendered flowers set against a dark, grassy ground. First exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York in November 1964, Flowers became one of Warhol's most recognizable bodies of work and a key example of his use of repetition, appropriation, and mechanical reproduction in Pop art.

For his 1965 exhibition at the Ileana Sonnabend Gallery in Paris, Warhol created a second series of smaller Flowers. He later produced a Flowers portfolio in 1970 featuring varied silkscreen compositions, and in 1974 created Hand Colored Flowers, a portfolio of ten hand-colored screen prints.

Warhol was presented with a copy of Modern Photography magazine by his friend Henry Geldzahler, the curator of American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[1] Warhol noticed a spread of photographs of hibiscus flowers printed in a range of hues that editor Patricia Caulfield had taken "to illustrate an article on a Kodak color processor for amateurs. The flowers in Caulfield's picture are pink, red, and yellow, and shown against foliage that more nearly resembles a coniferous-type shrub than hibiscus leaves."^[2][1] These images served as inspiration for Warhol's Flowers paintings for his exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York in November 1964.^[3]

Warhol chose a photograph that he had enlarged and photocopied to remove color from it.^[4] All that was left were silhouettes of the flowers and outlines of the pistils.^[4] To create a square shape, the image was cropped to show four flowers.^[4] Next, the blossoms were stenciled out in different proportions, starting with 48-inch squares.^[4] Warhol used a brush or spray paint to color the outlined shapes, some of which were painted with Day-Glo neon paint, and the rest were colored green.^[4] Lastly, a black silkscreen was applied to the background image, which displayed the pistils inside the blooms and the grass blades outside.^[4]

In 1965, Warhol produced a second series of Flowers for his show at the Ileana Sonnabend Gallery in Paris.^[5] This series of the quadratic works was smaller in scale—22, 14, 8, and 5 inches—and had a black and white background.^[4] In his memoir Popism, Warhol stated: "In France they weren't interested in new art; they'd gone back to liking the Impressionists mostly. That’s what made me decide to send them the Flowers; I figured they like that."^[6]

Art critic Lucy R. Lippard of Art International found the Flowers series a refreshing departure from Warhol's gory theme of his Death and Disasters series.^[7] She likened the silkscreened Flowers to "winsomely child-like blobs of brilliant solid color, silhouetted against a green and black overall grass pattern with an electric effect."^[7] Lippard added, "In spite of the infinite repetition, there is considerable difference in color combination, placement and edge. The direct and cheerful naiveté is augmented by the fact that the technique also recalls an amateur woodcut or linoleum block in its scratchy matter-of-factness and occasional off-registration. Seen up close, the pictures look like 'genuiné brushtroke' reproductions, echoing Warhol's principles of mass-production."^[7]

Art historian Nina Zimmer noted that "Warhol reduced and radicalised his Flowers to such an extent that the banal subject matter was now transformed into a powerful pictorial concept. The directionless format contributed to this: the pictures can be read in all directions; like an abstract painting, top and bottom, left and right, have been revoked."^[8]

Warhol was successfully sued by Patricia Caulfield, the executive editor of Modern Photography at the time, for reproducing a photograph she had created of hibiscus flowers.^[3] The June 1964 issue featured an article with a photograph of a flower arrangement she had taken in Barbados.^[3] Soon after, Warhol contacted the magazine to express his desire to purchase the image, but he thought it was too expensive.^[3] He then took the photo out of the magazine, cropped it, and used it to create silkscreen paintings for his Flowers series, according to the lawsuit that Caulfield filed in November 1966.^[3] Warhol and Caulfield reached a settlement for him to give her two new Flowers paintings, and he agreed to give her 25% of the profits from the portfolio of Flowers prints.^[3]

In 1970, Warhol created a Flowers portfolio, which had 10 prints with varied silkscreen compositions.^[9]

In 1974, Warhol produced Hand Colored Flowers, a set of 10 hand-colored screen prints co-published by Multiples, Inc. and Castelli Graphics.^[10]

The large Flower paintings were initially sold for $6,000 at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York and the Jerrold Morris International Gallery in Toronto.^[3][11]

In October 1973, a large Flowers painting of two blossoms sold for $135,000 at Sotheby Parke Bernet in New York, setting a record at the time for a Warhol painting.^[12][2]

In May 2001, a large 1964 Flowers, depicting two blossoms, one red and one pink, sold for $8.4 million at Christie's in New York.^[13]

In May 2005, a large 1965 Flowers, depicting two blossoms, one blue and one red, sold for $7.9 million at Christie's in New York.^[14]

In May 2014, Flowers (1964), depicting an orange, red, and two purple blossoms, sold for US$10.3 million at Phillips in New York.^[15][16]

In May 2018, 16 Flowers (1965), a grouping of sixteen 8-by-8-inch paintings, sold for $5.4 million at Phillips in New York.^[17]

In May 2019, 9 Flowers (1965), consisting of nine 8-inch square paintings, sold for $2.6 million at Phillips in New York.^[18]

In May 2019, Flowers (1964), depicting four red blossoms, sold for US$7.5 million at Phillips in Hong Kong.^[19][20]

In November 2019, Flowers (1965), depicting a yellow, red, and two orange blossoms, sold for $2.4 million at Christie's in New York.^[21]

In February 2020, Flowers (1964), depicting an orange, blue, and two purple blossoms, sold for £2 million (US $2.7 million) at Christie's in London.^[22]

In July 2021, Flowers (1964–65), depicting two pink and two orange blossoms, sold for £1.35 million (US $1.9 million) at Phillips in London.^[23]

In May 2022, Flowers (1964), depicting four white blossoms, from the collection of Thomas and Doris Ammann, sold for $15.8 million at Christie's.^[24]

In May 2024, Flowers (1965), depicting two yellow blossoms, sold for HK $66.6 million (US $8.5 million) at Christie's in Hong Kong.^[25][26]

In May 2024, Flowers (1964), depicting one red and three orange blossoms, sold for $35.5 million at Christie's in New York.^[27]