Andy Warhol - Cow (1971)

Cow 12 (1971)

The Cow series, created by Andy Warhol, consists of four screen prints of a realistic, photographic image of a large cow's head. Among other things, the cow heads were printed on wallpaper from 1966 to 1976. Warhol's Cow series was his formal attempt to incorporate the production of wallpaper into his creative repertoire. The inspiration for the complete Cow portfolio came from Ivan Karp, an art dealer in the 1960s. Karp once said to Warhol, "Why don't you paint some cows, they are so wonderfully pastoral and such an enduring image in the history of art." Gerard Malanga, one of Warhol's printers and collaborators, was the one who chose the photograph of the cow. Ultimately, however, it was Warhol's creativity and technique that made this subject so interesting as the final product. He uses bold, high-contrast colors that make the cow a humorous and oddly exciting subject.

The most important features of the artwork

About Andy Warhol

Pop artist Andy Warhol was obsessed with celebrity, consumer culture and mechanical production and created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century. Warhol drew heavily on motifs from popular culture and everyday objects. He created works such as his 32 Campbell's Soup Cans (1962), Brillo block box sculptures and portraits of Marilyn Monroe, using the medium of screen printing to achieve his characteristic hard edges and flat areas of colour. Warhol was also a mentor to artists such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. His pop sensibility is now common practice, taken up by major contemporary artists such as Richard and Jeff Koons. This is another reason why Andy Warhol is still number 1 in the Global Artist Ranking.