Mao (F. & S. II.92)
Mao (F. & S. II.92)
Signed Print
Andy Warhol
£30,000-£45,000Value Indicator
$60,000-$90,000 Value Indicator
$60,000-$80,000 Value Indicator
¥290,000-¥440,000 Value Indicator
€35,000-€50,000 Value Indicator
$320,000-$480,000 Value Indicator
¥5,920,000-¥8,880,000 Value Indicator
$40,000-$60,000 Value Indicator
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91 x 91cm, Edition of 250, Screenprint
Medium: Screenprint
Edition size: 250
Year: 1972
Size: H 91cm x W 91cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
Last Auction: May 2025
Value Trend:
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Meaning & Analysis
Fascinated by the mechanism of fame in popular culture, Andy Warhol creates a 1970s Pop Art icon out of the Chinese communist leader Chairman Mao in his print Mao (F. & S. II.92) from his famous Mao series (1972). Appropriating the official imagery of the Chairman,primarily used as a propaganda tool in Maoist China, Warhol manipulates the original photograph with unlikely colours to make an astute political statement amidst America’s involvement in the Cold War.
In this iteration of Warhol’s print, Mao’s face is depicted in a sickly yellow and his lips are turquoise green working to make a spectacle of the Chinese statesman without him knowing. By repeating his image many times over the course of a screen print series, Warhol portrays Mao as a commodity to be dispersed as a piece of mass-media in capitalist America.
Warhol explores a multitude of colour variations across the series to render each print unique,thus symbolically opposing the ideals of communism that Mao wished to uphold. Taking this point further, Warhol adds gestural dark lines to each print as a display of individualism, reminiscent of the American Abstract Expressionists. Deliberately misaligning the photographic image with the coloured ink layered on top, Warhol creates a jarring visual effect that makes this image both humorous and menacing.
Andy Warhol was a leading figure of the Pop Art movement and is often considered the father of Pop Art. Born in 1928, Warhol allowed cultural references of the 20th century to drive his work. From the depiction of glamorous public figures, such as Marilyn Monroe, to the everyday Campbell’s Soup Can, the artist challenged what was considered art by blurring the boundaries between high art and mass consumerism. Warhol's preferred screen printing technique further reiterated his obsession with mass culture, enabling art to be seen as somewhat of a commodity through the reproduced images in multiple colour ways.
