Dollar Sign $ (1)
(F&S II. 274-279), 1982

unique screenprint on Lenox Museum board
paper: 19 3/4 x 15 5/8 inches
frame: 20 x 16 inches
edition of 60 unique screenprints, each in a unique color combination
signed "Andy Warhol" in pencil recto
numbered in pencil recto
with the artist's copyright inkstamp on the reverse
printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York with his blindstamp
published by Andy Warhol, New York

Literature
Frayda Feldman and Jorg Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonne: 1962-1987, Fourth Edition, D.A.P., New York, 2003, Catalogue Reference F&S II. .274-279, other unique impressions reproduced in full color, page 126 and 175.

Price on Request

Additional Photos

In the iconic Dollar Sign series, Andy Warhol boldly depicts the symbol of the most powerful currency in the world, the United States Dollar. Warhol drew images of money in some of his early works of the 1950s, in graphite drawings of dollar bills of the 1960’s and in 1962 creating dollar bill paintings on canvas. By the early 1980’s the connection between money and art intrigued Warhol and he often exchanged his artistic ideas for cash.

ANDY WARHOL DOLLAR SIGNS

In the iconic Dollar Sign series, Andy Warhol boldly depicts the symbol of the most powerful currency in the world, the United States Dollar.

Warhol drew images of money in some of his early works of the 1950s, in graphite drawings of dollar bills of the 1960’s and in 1962 creating dollar bill paintings on canvas. By the early 1980’s the connection between money and art intrigued Warhol and he often exchanged his artistic ideas for cash. His goal to reproduce the complexity of the dollar bill in his 1960’s paintings is also what led to his embrace of the screen printing process process, which would become his trademark.

Warhol once wrote "I like money on the wall", "Say you were going to buy a painting. I think you should take that money, tie it upand hang it on the wall. Then when someone visited you, the first thing they would see is the money on the wall" (A. Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again, New York, 1975, p.134).

Andy Warhol Dollar Signs Castelli Gallery 1982

Andy Warhol’s first Dollar Sign paintings were exhibited at the Castelli Gallery in January, 1982. After the opening night, Warhol noted in his diary: "Another big opening of mine—a double—Dollar Signs at the Castelli on rede Street and Reversals at the Castelli on West Broadway. … it was like a busy sixties day" (A. Warhol, quoted in P. Hackett, (ed.), The Andy Warhol Diaries, New York, 1989, p. 425). In describing Andy Warhol’s Dollar Sign works, David Bourdon noted, "When they were shown at the Castelli Gallery in January 1982, they appeared as prophetic emblems of the huge amounts of money that would pour into the art world during the following years. Warhol’s Dollar Signs are brazen, perhaps insolent reminders that pictures by brand-name artists are metaphors for money, a situation that never troubled him" (D. Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, p. 384).

Warhol found he was unable to find an existing image of a dollar sign that had the exact look he required. Warhol returned to the skill honed during the early years of his career, his draftsmanship. He drew hundreds of dollar signs, some straight, some slanting, some thick, some thin and some more Pop than others. The feel of the pencil strokes in Warhol’s original drawings are thus captured in the complexity of his screenprint process. The fact that the source image was one that Warhol created himself marks his Dollar Sign works as a rarity within his late body of work.

"Warhol’s imaginative creativity during the last decade of his career can only be compared to the early 1960s...People associated with Warhol during this late period remark on the vitality, energy and spirit of experimentation surrounding his pursuit of painting. He enthusiastically embraced each new idea, each new body of work and he laboured continuously in their production, working almost daily in the studio to complete his multitude of projects. At that time, Warhol created more new series of paintings, in larger numbers and on a vastly larger scale, than during any other phase of his life. ...it was a period of extraordinary artistic development for Warhol, during which we witness a dramatic transformation of his style and the introduction of new techniques that address subjects that resonated with personal meaning and significance" (J. D. Ketner II, Andy Warhol: The Last Decade, exh. cat., Milwaukee Art Museum, 2009, p. 16).

Warhol understood money’s importance to the consumerist culture of postwar America and his Dollar Sign images evoke the economic promises of "Reaganomics," in the early 1980’s which resulted in an economic boom for the U.S. economy and led to the creation of the burgeoning art market we know today.