ANDY WARHOL | CADENCE COMMERCIAL (STANDING WOMAN)

Private Collection, New York

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner 

In 1965 the advertising agency Foote, Cone and Belding commissioned Andy Warhol to film an advertisement for a laxative called Cadence, created and manufactured by Menley & James Laboratories. Shot in August of that year, this rare film pre-dates the commercial Warhol would make for Schraft’s Diner a few years later, previously thought to have been his first commercial.

The commercial was produced during the same period as Warhol’s renowned Screen Tests (1964-1966), and carries many of the same characteristics as these counterparts – subjects appear in black and white films against plain backdrops, and look directly into the camera while maintaining minimal movement. Warhol’s signature fixation with the celebrity is already felt in these films as many well-known persons of the time participated as subjects.

The Screen Tests were inspired by a booklet of mugshots released by the New York City Police Department titled “The Thirteen Most Wanted,” which would also inspire a mural by the same name at the 1964 World Fair. The repetition of images intrinsic to the mugshots coupled with Warhol’s enthusiasm for photo booths, echoing by way of both form and subject Warhol’s treatment of recurrence, a central theme in the Pop Art movement.

In 1966, the decision was made not to market the product, and the commercial never aired. Instead it was acquired by a former employee of the advertising company and his wife, Margaret “Meg” Crane, the inventor of the home pregnancy test. The film has remained in the same collection until this day.

In 2017, the film was included as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s seminal retrospective on the artist, Andy Warhol – From A to B and Back Again.