"I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting. I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall." — Andy Warhol, 1975
By the early 1960s, Warhol was pursuing a reputation as a fine artist. Roll of Bills registers this transition. Its soft and expressive hatching contrasts with the simple contours of his earlier line drawings. It is at once a master drawing and an unmistakable example of Pop art—the bills are larger than life, distinctively American, mass-produced, and utterly familiar. Shortly after Warhol made this work, he abandoned drawing for over a decade.
Gallery label from Andy Warhol: Campbell's Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–1967, April 25–October 18, 2015.
