‘I’m for mechanical art’, said Andy Warhol (1928–1987). ‘When I took up silkscreening, it was to more fully exploit the preconceived image through commercial techniques of multiple reproduction.’ Printmaking was a vital artistic practice for Andy Warhol. Prints figure prominently throughout his career from his earliest work as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s, to the collaborative silkscreens made in the Factory during the 1960s and the commissioned portfolios of his final years. In their fascination with popular culture and provocative subverting of the difference between original and copy, Warhol’s prints are recognized now as a prescient forerunner of today’s hypersophisticated, hyper-saturated and hyper-accelerated visual culture. Andy Warhol Prints, published to accompany a major exhibition at the Portland Art Museum – the largest of its kind ever to be presented – includes approximately 250 of Warhol’s prints and ephemera from the collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, including iconic silkscreen prints of Campbell’s soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. Organized chronologically and by series, Andy Warhol Prints establishes the range of Warhol’s innovative graphic production as it evolved over the course of four decades, with a particular focus on Warhol’s use of different printmaking techniques, beginning with illustrated books and ending with screen printing.
