Flowers

Instead of observing flowers in nature, Andy Warhol found his botanical inspiration in a 1964 issue of Modern Photography. He transformed a photograph of hibiscus blossoms into a technicolor series of silkscreens, each simply titled Flowers and debuted at the influential Leo Castelli Gallery later that same year. Silkscreens from that exhibition have since sold for over $2 million at auction. While they evoke the Flower Power movement of the 1960s, Warhol’s Flowers have also be interpreted as a symbol of mourning, as the artist created these works just after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.