About this work: Flowers would appear, interspersed, throughout every decade of Warhol’s illustrious career. He penned drawings of flowers as early as the 1950s, studying floral compositions and visiting flower markets with friend Charles Lisanby to purchase flowers to sketch. Paintings of flowers from his 1964 exhibit at the Leo Castelli Gallery are some of his most widely recognized works, and his photographs from the 1970s and 1980s are pervasive. [1]

Warhol revisited flowers in 1974 when he created two suites of prints devoted to the subject. (See FS.II.100-109 and FS.II.110-119.) The first set was a suite of 10 flower compositions created in an edition of 100 plus proofs; these are black and white. The second suite of 10 is of the same flower compositions as the first, but, in this latter suite, the flowers were hand colored with Dr. Martin's aniline watercolor dyes like those he used for his projects in the 1950s. Each of these prints is therefore unique. Each of the hand colored flowers was created in an edition of 250 plus proofs. [2]

The drawing here is a study for these suites, based on Japanese ikebana arrangements. [3]

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Reference:
[1] Frayda Feldman and Jörg Schellmann, “Section III B“: Commissioned Projects in Andy Warhol Prints, Fourth edition. (New York, D.A.P. Distributed Art Publishers, INC. 2003), pages 84-87.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Frey, Gina. “Flowers Observed, Flowers Transformed.” Carnegie Online, June 2004, carnegiemuseums.org/magazine-archive/2004/mayjun/feature4.html.