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Cow-Andy Warhol-1

Andy Warhol’s series of a New Jersey cow played a big role in the artist’s career and is one of his most recognizable works. Published between 1966 and 1976, the Cow portfolio consisted of four distinctive color schemes: Pink Cow on Yellow Background (1966), Brown Cow with Blue Background (1971), Yellow Cow on Blue Background (1971), and finally Pink Cow on Purple Background (1976). Warhol was encouraged to consider the subject by Ivan Karp, an instrumental art dealer in the 1960s. As the artist recalls “Karp said: Why don’t you paint some cows, they’re wonderfully pastoral and such a durable in the history of the arts”. The photograph was chosen by Gerard Malanga - Warhol’s printer - but it was ultimately Warhol who chose bright and sometimes aggressive color scheme. He subverted a mundane bovine into a chaotic yet humorous subject, suggesting the illusion of a cow on an acid trip.

“ I don't know how ‘pastoral’ he expected me to make them, but when he saw the huge cow heads ‘bright pink on a bright yellow background’ that I was going to have made into rolls of wallpaper, he was shocked. But after a moment he exploded with: ‘They're super-pastoral! They're ridiculous! They're blazingly bright and vulgar!’ I mean, he loved those cows and for my next show we papered all the walls in the gallery with them. „

Andy Warhol