Santa Claus 1981

This is an image of Santa Claus, by Andy Warhol. The wiggly green lines and flat planes of colour give the piece a unique sense of depth. It reminds me how artmaking is really a process, like a visual conversation that unfolds with each layer. I notice the face is rendered in a fleshy pink, almost cartoonish, but the beard is just these meandering white lines. The whole thing feels really immediate. You can practically see the decisions being made right there on the canvas, or the silkscreen, or whatever method Warhol used. It’s a different take on his usual pop images, but in my mind I’m reminded of Alex Katz, another painter who was interested in flatness and graphic immediacy, just in a slightly different way. I think what I like best about this piece is the way it embraces ambiguity. There's no single right way to see it or interpret it, and to me, that’s part of what makes art so exciting.