Christmas Card
Andy Warhol
ANDY WARHOL, c.1951. BLOTTED INK AND FOUNTAIN PEN ON PAPER.
Before he was Andy Warhol, Andrew Warhola was making a living as a commercial illustrator in 1950’s New York. He drew shoes for magazines and manufacturers, designed book covers for pulp novels and record covers for weekly hits and, in the role that allowed him the most bounds for experimentation, he created greeting and holiday cards for Tiffany and Co, as well as the MOMA. It is unsurprising, to know Warhol as we do today, that he always loved Christmas. He was a devout man, and charitable throughout his life, but something of the kitsch, Americana of contemporary Christmas festivities spoke to him and the designs he made for Christmas cards become his most popular. Using a unique technique of blotting ink and then tracing hard outlines on a new sheet of paper lowered atop the original, Warhol’s distinctive style of the day lent itself to festivities. His illustrations are warm and playful, full of character while retaining a remarkable simplicity in their style. It was not long before his genius was noticed, and he dropped the ‘a’ of his last name to become the artist we know today, but in these early, commercial works, we can see so many of the technical and contextual components that led to his maturity.