Perhaps in no other decade could Warhol produce a series of paintings comprised of singular or multiple dollar signs. The 1980s is, after all, the era in which Gordon Gekko declared in the movie Wall Street that “… greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” Warhol was free to examine material exuberance at its height, and very few things can best symbolize it than a dollar sign. For more on Warhol of the 1980s, visit our virtual exhibitions Andy Warhol: Polaroids and It Was Acceptable in the 80s.

However, this preoccupation did not just spring forth in the 1980s but had been a lifelong obsession. In the 1960s, Warhol screen printed dollar bills; additionally, his focus on consumer goods like soup cans and brillo boxes point to an understanding of money’s influence on visual culture.

In stripping away any other symbolism or reference to currency in his 1981 series of Dollar Sign paintings, Warhol dares the audience to conflate money and art while also collapsing fine art and pop culture. The dollar sign surrounds us every day, more so in the age of the internet in which with a click of a button we can fulfill our wants and desires. As art impresario Anthony d’Offay said of his work during in the 1980s, “They seem to be prophetic.” His work including this painting speak to the time in which they were created and to the reverberations into our present society.

Beyond the symbolism of the dollar sign, we can appreciate the painterly qualities. Warhol originally drew dollar signs, photographed and then silkscreened the resulting image onto the canvas. The three dollar signs are each individual both in their shape and in color. Their wild colors and sinuous lines both entice and repel. They become at once symbol and abstraction. The audience comprehends the painting as a statement of money and as abstract shapes. It is almost as if the work were an ad for money itself. There is a duality in the work – an empty statement concealing profound complexity.

The Dollar Sign paintings are Warhol at his most ironic and sincere.