Flowers #2 1970

Andy Warhol made ‘Flowers #2’ using screen printing, and, well, it’s just so Warholian. There are four flowers, each a solid, almost cartoonish block of color: a pale mint, a bright yellow, and two shades of orange. I imagine Warhol in his studio, layering those colors with such deliberate nonchalance. The pink background, with its scribbled, almost anxious marks, peeks through, giving the piece this edgy, pop-art vibe. The flat colours, laid out in a grid, feel so mechanical, yet there’s this underlying tension, almost as if the flowers are trapped behind the pink brushstrokes. It makes me think about how Warhol, like many of us artists, was riffing off the work of others – taking something familiar, like a flower, and turning it into something totally new and iconic. Painting is like a conversation, you know, where we’re all borrowing, stealing, and transforming each other’s ideas across time. It’s what keeps art alive!