Anniversary Donald Duck 1985

Andy Warhol made this Anniversary Donald Duck print, and the colours are just electric – that hot coral pink just zings against the blues and oranges. You can see Warhol's hand in the slightly misaligned layers, like he's pushing the medium to its limit. I can imagine Warhol in his studio, cranking out these images, not precious, not fussy, just grabbing and going. It's like he's saying, "Yeah, it's Donald Duck, so what? It's still got something to say." The flatness of the image makes me feel like I am getting a message or seeing an advertisement. Those repeated figures of Donald Duck create a sense of movement and energy, kind of like those old Muybridge photos of horses running. Warhol was always looking at what was happening in the world, and this piece is like a snapshot of our culture, turned up to eleven. And I think other artists like James Rosenquist were on a similar wavelength.