Selected screenprints from two portfolios in the Lehigh University Permanent collection: Flowers (black and white), 1974 and Flowers (hand-colored), 1974.  One of America’s foremost artists, Andy Warhol is known for combining images from popular culture with innovative printing techniques.

“Since I never thought I could draw, I was doing tracings, you know ink blots.  You draw on one side and then you could transfer it so it had a mechanical look.”

–Andy Warhol, September 1986

To produce this series, Warhol used the blotted line technique which he developed while a student at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.  He drew on one sheet of paper and quickly blotted it with another while the ink was still wet.  This produced a monoprint, a copy not quite the same as the original.  He ten colored some of the originals with Dr. Martin’s aniline water color dyes.  This approach gave each print a unique appearance.

Warhol was inspired by samples in a wallpaper catalog and by images found in Interperative Floral Designs, writen by Mrs. Raymond Russ Stoltz.

One of America’s foremost artists, Warhol changed theway we see the world.  He selected images from popular culture and combined them with the printing process, thus eliminating the boundaries between painting drawing and printmaking.  He understood how the reproduced image reflected and shaped contemporary life.