Watercolors

Before Andy Warhol gained art world stardom for his portrayals of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s Soup Cans, he worked as a commercial illustrator, creating dainty sketches of cats, angels, shoes, and cakes. Featuring hand-drawn outlines and pastel watercolors, Warhol’s illustrations from the 1940s and ’50s reveal a more delicate side to the larger-than-life artist. Warhol often turned to his mother Julia (who he lived with on the Upper East Side of New York City) to write the script text that accompanied his sketches—an early sign of the collaborative approach to artmaking he would bring to The Silver Factory a decade later. In addition to his advertising work for commercial clients, Warhol illustrated eight books during this period, including his humorous take on famous love stories Love Is A Pink Cake (1953), his ode to his many feline pets 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy (1954), and his fanciful cookbook of elaborate cakes Wild Raspberries (1959).