Andy Warhol's Dollar Sign series is a blunt statement of the inexorable link between art and commerce and a brazen expression of Warhol's own interest in business - from his commercial illustration of the 1950s; his appropriation of major American consumer brands in the 1960s; to the lucrative value of his own 'brand' from the 1970s onwards. As Warhol himself put it, 'Business art is the step that comes after Art. I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist. After I did the thing called 'art' or whatever it's called, I went into business art. I wanted to be an Art Businessman or a Business Artist. Being good in Business is the most fascinating kind of art.'
$ (1) is from a large body of paintings and screenprints featuring different versions of the dollar sign found in commercial typography. There were four distinct screenprint portfolios in the series which, despite being published in 'editions' of 60, 35 or 25, were made up of unique images, thus completely subverting the idea of what an art print could be. Warhol expert Donna De Salvo describes how in Warhol's hands the print became 'unique, even unreproducible'.
