Andy Warhol Paramount (1985) from the Ads Series, turns the instantly recognizable film company logo into a stunning work of Pop Art. Paramount’s is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo, and it appears before every film the company creates. Warhol’s Paramount mimics the animated logo’s movement by creating a three-dimensional quality that can be seen in the stars, words, and mountain. By layering forms and linework, these elements in Warhol’s Paramount seem to pop out at the viewer and the bright yellows, pinks, blues, and green pop against their white background. The recognizability of the Paramount logo even today is a testament to Warhol’s discerning eye for pop culture and Warhol’s Paramount is an undeniable example of the power of widespread consumer images. 

Andy Warhol’s Ads portfolio, made in 1985, is a stunning exemplar of the core tenets of Warhol’s art practice. Drawing on his initial start as a commercial illustrator, the focus on commonplace advertisements encapsulates his interest in commercialism and consumerism. The Ads portfolio pulls from globally recognized brands associated with a wide range of products, from Volkswagen cars to Paramount movies, and elevates these elements of ordinary life to the status of high art. These advertisements were powerful symbols, and Andy Warhol’s Ads portfolio is a peek into the media landscape of the 1980s. By isolating the quotidian images in these advertisements from their commercial context, Warhol creates a space to appreciate the aesthetics of the everyday. Andy Warhol’s Ads portfolio is quintessential to the history of art, and is a gorgeous collection of some of his most sought after works.

Created in 1985, Andy Warhol’s Paramount is a color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board and is signed in pencil in the lower left. It is a unique work of an edition of 190, 50 AP, 30 PP, 5 EP, 10 HC, and 10 numbered in Roman numerals, published by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., New York and printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York.

Andy Warhol Ads Series, 1985:

Andy Warhol’s Ads series of 1985 features a variety of advertisements and logos of popular consumer brands including Chanel No. 5, Paramount, Volkswagen, Mobilgas, and Apple.

Interested in exploring the relationship between art and commerce, Warhol understood advertisements to be ubiquitous and influential forms of visual culture that could be celebrated through art. By reproducing these quotidian advertisements as art, Warhol questions the value of traditional art forms and the role of the artist in a commercial society.

Each artwork in the series features the product or brand name in bold letters, surrounded by vibrant colors and other design elements. Warhol's use of repetition and bright colors gives these advertisements a sense of familiarity and immediacy, emphasizing their power over consumer desires and popular culture at large.

This screenprint is part of a portfolio of 10 works Warhol created in 1985 titled The Andy Warhol Ads Series . Other works in the Series include Apple, Mobil, Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean), Van Heusen (Ronald Reagan), Paramount, Blackglama (Judy Garland), Chanel, The New Spirit (Donald Duck), Lifesavers, Volkswagen.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:

Andy Warhol, Paramount, from Ads (1985), is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work).

1. Feldman, Frayda and Jörg Schellmann. Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 – 1987, 4th Ed. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2003.  Andy Warhol’s Paramount screenprint (1985) is listed and referenced as catalogue raisonne FS II 352.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany our Andy Warhol’s Paramount screenprint (1985).

About the Framing:

Andy Warhol’s Paramount screenprint (1985) is framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, artist name title, year is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.