People on a Forest Trail

1961

Afgewezen door Leo Castelli

In 1961 verkoopt Warhol schilderijen rechtstreeks aan verzamelaar Robert Scull en trekt hij grote kopers aan, maar kunsthandelaar Ivan Karp kan geen galerie voor hem vinden: Leo Castelli wijst hem af omdat hij het werk te dicht bij dat van Roy Lichtenstein vindt liggen.

1961

Besluit geld te schilderen

Na een bezoek in december 1961 aan Claes Oldenburgs installatie ‘Магазин’ keert Warhol wanhopig huiswaarts, overtuigd dat zijn stripschilderijen niet oorspronkelijk genoeg zijn. Hij volgt de schertsende raad van Muriel Flatow, gegeven voor 50 dollar, om te schilderen wat hij het liefste heeft, geld, en begint dollarbiljetten af te beelden.

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.

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”.

6 November 1962

First solo Pop show in New York

The filmmaker Emile de Antonio introduced Warhol to Eleanor Ward of the Stable Gallery, who agreed to a show in exchange for a painting of a two-dollar bill; the eighteen new works included Marilyn Monroe Twenty Times and Red Elvis. Michael Fried wrote in Art International that of all the painters working in the service of a popular iconography, Warhol was probably the most single-minded and the most spectacular.