Andy Warhol

Barrington Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1993

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the background tends more towards red in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals intermittent tension cracks along the turnover edges and very light wear to all four corner tips. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The dollar sign, perhaps the most iconic and pervasive symbol of American power since its first appearance in the late 18th century, was a constant source of stimulation for Warhol, who had grown up through the Great Depression in a poor immigrant family in Pittsburgh. Despite great fame and financial success, Warhol remained preoccupied with money all his life. First appearing in his early paintings of newspaper advertisements and then as a series of bills painted in 1962, Warhol would revisit his favored subject repeatedly in his work. The present example was executed in the same year as his hugely successful exhibition Dollar Signs at the Castelli Gallery in 1982. Like Warhol's first Pop paintings which examined the relationship between big business advertising and the common man through enlarged icons of consumerism such as those of Coca-Cola and Campbell's soup, Warhol here similarly takes the currency of this relationship and boldly presents it with all the brazen euphoria synonymous with advancing consumerism.

Here, the totemic dollar sign is repeatedly screened onto the canvas using deep forest green, bill-green and ruby-red hues - a brash and unashamed impression of capital. Warhol openly revered money famously remarking: “I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting. I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall. Then when someone visited you, the first thing they would see is the money on the wall” (Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again, New York 1975., p. 133-34). Hidden beneath the bright veneer of animated colours, Dollar Sign also embodies a satirical commentary on the materialism of Warhol’s America, yet also celebrates it at the same time, as the artist outwardly revelled in his fame and fortune and of those around him. Dollar Sign lays testament to Warhol’s mastery of the silkscreen technique, constructing an exuberant painting that epitomizes the power and lure of one of the most iconic and masterful symbols of contemporary culture.