REPRODUCTION COPY AFTER THE ORIGINAL SUITE CREATED IN 1979 BY ANDY WARHOL. AN EDITION OF THE ORIGINAL PRINT SERIES IS PART OF THE NANCY A. NASHER AND DAVID J. HAEMISEGGER COLLECTION. THIS REPRODUCTION ALLOWS VISITORS TO APPRECIATE THE ARTWORK WHILE PRESERVING THE ORIGINAL.
Andy Warhol’s Flowers series, created in 1964, is a striking departure from his usual subjects of celebrities and consumer goods, yet it maintains his signature Pop art approach. Based on a photograph of hibiscus flowers originally taken by Patricia Caulfield for Modern Photography, Warhol reproduced a cropped version of the floral image using silkscreen printing. The various prints in the series are compositionally identical, with Warhol altering only the colors to create multiple variations. The individual prints can then be installed in any order, configuration, and orientation, allowing for hundreds of unique permutations of the original installation.
The flowers are rendered in bold, unnatural hues—hot pinks, yellows, blues, and oranges—set against a grainy field of grass. Though visually the works are quite cheerful, they were created shortly after his dark Death and Disaster series, and many critics interpret the prints as meditations on the impermanence of beauty and the commodification of nature in modern life.
