SOURCE MATERIAL

Words by Skye Sherwin

The textiles Andy Warhol created in the 1950s, when he was an up-and-coming commercial illustrator in New York, bear many hallmarks of the Pop vision that would make him the most influential artist in the world. Repeating lines of toffee apples come in clashing sugar-rush pink and scarlet, while ice cream is chocolate brown, blood orange and teal, and stacked in phallic scoops. Buttons pop in primary hues. Even luggage tags can become fodder for an eye-catching pattern. In these “novelty fabrics”, as they were then called, everyday consumer totems are transformed in colours that practically glow.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the selection unearthed by curators Geoff Rayner and Richard Chamberlain for the exhibition Andy Warhol: The Textiles at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum, is that these early works are so little known. After all, the textile industry’s endlessly reproducible, repetitiously patterned prints would seem to offer an ideal medium for the Pop Art maverick’s iconic screen prints of movie stars and soup cans, and clothing was a cultural form he was particularly drawn to. “Fashion is more art than art is,” was one of Warhol’s declarations.

“Many but not all of his textile designs were sold anonymously,” explains co-curator Geoff Rayner. “Until recently, much of what he created has been left somewhat lost and untraced. So it has been really rewarding to slowly piece together this whole part of his oeuvre that has been eclipsed.”

In the 1950s, Warhol made a name for himself as a hardworking and adaptable commercial fashion illustrator, selling his uncredited designs for the clothing industry through agents and other contacts. Those included in this exhibition often demonstrate links with his wider work. His best-known illustrations from that decade, for instance, were part of an award-winning campaign that set out to revive the flagging I Miller shoe manufacturer and, in the process, sparked Warhol’s lifelong footwear fetish. As a fine artist, meanwhile, he began channelling the personalities of people he admired – from Diana Vreeland to Mae West – into whimsical drawings of fantastical gold shoes. Here, his love of footwear can be seen in the vibrant blouse material he created for Jayson Classics depicting elegant pink boots and shoes.

The fabric designs are highly distinctive in other ways, too. “Warhol used a blotted black ink or broken outline throughout his commercial art period, up to around 1962 or 1963,” says co-curator Richard Chamberlain. “He applied Dr Ph Martin’s aniline dyes to colour his designs, which gave them an incredibly bright, almost illuminated quality. Over and above everything, his droll sense of humour and his idiosyncratic take on subjects make them stand out from the mass of other fabrics from the period.”

In one complex, rhythmic design in lime green, pink and yellow, harlequins ride horses and perform somersaults. It speaks to a world of childlike wonder that feels quite different from Warhol’s well-known later consumer motifs like Coke bottles and Brillo pad boxes. Whether it is a dress with a print of brilliantly coloured flags or the desserts the famously sweettoothed artist coveted, these textiles promise plenty of insights into both his personality and the formation of his ideas. As the curators say, “They’re an essential ingredient in the whole Warhol picture.”

Andy Warhol: The Textiles is at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London until 10 September, fashiontextilemuseum.org