Double Elvis

December 1961

The decision to paint money

After seeing Claes Oldenburg's installation The Store in December 1961, Warhol went home frustrated, feeling his comic-strip paintings were no longer original enough. He accepted Muriel Flatow's tongue-in-cheek advice, given for $50, to paint what he liked most — money — and began painting dollar bills.

1961–1962

Mastering silkscreen

Seeking technical advice, Warhol turned to Floriano Vecchi of Tiber Press, who showed him the basics of silkscreen printing: transferring designs to acetate, preparing screens and pulling ink with a squeegee. The experiments became a turning point and soon led to some of his earliest silkscreen works.

9 July 1962

Soup cans at the Ferus Gallery

The Los Angeles dealer Irving Blum, surprised that Warhol had no gallery, offered him a solo show at the Ferus Gallery. Warhol sent 32 canvases, one for each variety of Campbell's soup; the exhibition opened on 9 July 1962 and marked his West Coast debut.

October 1962

“The New Realists” at the Sidney Janis Gallery

Invited by the dealer Sidney Janis, Warhol took part in the exhibition The New Realists, showing 200 Soup Cans, Big Campbell's Soup Can 19c (Beef Noodle) and Do It Yourself (Flowers). The show was widely seen as a turning point for the acceptance of Pop art: The New Yorker likened its effect on the New York art world to an “earthquake”.

1964

The Factory on 47th Street

By 1964 Warhol had moved his studio to 231 East 47th Street, which became known as the Factory; Billy Name covered it in aluminium foil and silver paint. The poet Gerard Malanga helped him with silkscreens and films, and working with assistants became a lasting feature of his method.

May 1965

Paris: announcing his retirement from painting

The second Flowers series was shown at Galerie Ileana Sonnabend in Paris; during the trip Warhol announced that he was retiring from painting to focus on film, saying he no longer believed in painting.