Mickey Mouse by Warhol
As early as his comic strip and Campbell's Soup-can paintings of the early 1960s, Warhol exhibited an unerring sense for the powerful motifs of his time -- contemporary images that captured the modern imagination as completely as the gods and goddesses of ancient mythology once did. Interestingly, in choosing Myths as the title of his 1981 portfolio of 10 screen prints, Warhol was referring not to remote civilizations, but to the beginnings of the cinema and the imaginary characters loved and recognized by millions all over the world. Mickey Mouse by Andy Warhol derives from the animation; the Myths Series are Warhol's first and only depictions of imaginary persons. Reminiscent of the artist's own earlier work, as well as common childhood memories and dated media personalities, Warhol's Myths Series relies heavily on nostalgia for its impact. Most images in Warhol's Myths Series are taken from old Hollywood films or 1950s television. The majority of them are fantasy characters from childhood and, typical of Warhol, they are all American or Americanized subjects. With his Myths Series, he portrayed nothing less than the universal view of America's once enchanted and powerful past. From the outset, Warhol was working from an understanding of the degree to which images are bound by context. He understood that they are what they are, because of where they are, who made them and how their virtues are described in language.Included in the Myths Series is this particular print entitled Mickey Mouse.
