Andy Warhol’s name is synonymous with the beginning of the American Pop art movement of the 1960’s. He created the connection between celebrity culture and artistic expression and challenged the elitist attitudes of the day towards fine art. Warhol graduated from art school with a degree in pictorial design, and moved to New York where he began to work as a commercial illustrator and a product marketer and it was these experiences that heavily influenced his artistic career, in which he glamorized and transformed everyday objects, like soup cans, cleaning supplies and Lifesavers into works of art.
This screenprint Lifesavers is from one of Warhols most iconic set of prints known as the Ads Portfolio. Commissioned by Feldmen Fine Arts in 1980, the series consisted of iconic advertising images of the day; Lifesavers, Mobil, Blackglama (Judy Garland), Paramount, Chanel, Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean), Van Heusen (Ronald Reagan), The New Spirit (Donald Duck), Volkswagen, and Apple. The series reflected Warhol’s fascination with American advertising, consumerism and commercialism, three major themes of his life’s work.