Butterfly 1986

Andy Warhol made this print of a Butterfly with, I’m guessing, silkscreen. This isn’t one of Warhol’s immediately recognizable works, but you can still see his signature all over it. The blocky shapes, neon colors, and repeating patterns all scream Warhol. The heavy outlines in black and orange are so vivid, it's hard to imagine them coming from the natural world. I love to think about how he made it. Did he choose this image? Did it appeal to him in some way? It seems almost like he is trying to flatten something as delicate as a butterfly, and yet it does retain some beauty. It's such an ordinary thing, a butterfly. How could it be made more fabulous? That was the question that I think a lot about when I’m working on paintings too. What can a painting be?