Paramount Trial Proof by Andy Warhol

Paramount Trial Proof by Andy Warhol

The Ads Portfolio of prints by Andy Warhol is one of his most sought after and iconic sets of prints. This Andy Warhol portfolio includes images of James Dean and Life Savers. The Ads portfolio is made up of ten screen prints on Lenox Museum Board by Andy Warhol.

Originally created by the founder and president of Paramount studios W.W. Hodkinson, the iconic Paramount by Andy Warhol ad with its distinctly pyramidal mountain shape has been the company’s logo since its inception. Warhol appropriately depicts the snow -capped mountaintop in white, causing the image to pop out towards the viewer. Warhol’s skillful ability to manipulate color is exemplified in this work, as the text and mountain almost appear to pop out three dimensionally in a manner reminiscent of animated film. Like the Paramount company advertising its films, Warhol’s Ad series serves as a form of advertisement for Warhol’s artwork, blatantly acknowledging the commercial nature of American society and urging consumers to continue buying iconic imagery that will forever proposition them with a new and exciting product.

More than twenty years after his death, Andy Warhol remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture. Warhol’s life and work inspires creative thinkers worldwide thanks to his enduring imagery, his artfully cultivated celebrity, and the ongoing research of dedicated scholars. His impact as an artist is far deeper and greater than his one prescient observation that “everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” His omnivorous curiosity resulted in an enormous body of work that spanned every available medium and most importantly contributed to the collapse of boundaries between high and low culture.

A skilled social networker, Warhol parlayed his fame, one connection at a time, to the status of a globally recognized brand. Decades before widespread reliance on portable media devices, he documented his daily activities and interactions on his traveling audio tape recorder and beloved Minox 35EL camera.  Predating the hyper-personal outlets now provided online, Warhol captured life’s every minute detail in all its messy, ordinary glamour and broadcast it through his work, to a wide and receptive audience.