Non-Driving Andy Warhol Was Fascinated with Cars

September 11, 2013

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Although Andy Warhol never learned to drive, he had a lifelong fascination with the automobile, considering it an icon in itself. Warhol is known primarily for his work featuring Marilyn Monroe or Campbell’s soup cans, but the car was a lesser-known focus of his. The very first car he drew was his brother’s produce delivery truck when he was 18 years old. Aside from his BMW M1 Art Car, he made giant canvases of car crashes in the ’60s and prints of VWs and trucks in the ’80s. In 1986, on the 100th anniversary of the automobile, DaimlerChrysler commissioned Warhol to do a series about cars, documenting the history of the automobile using 20 models from the years 1886 to 1986. This was the last series Warhol did, as he passed away the following year.

At the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, a recent art exhibit dedicated exclusively to Warhol’s car imagery, called Warhol and Cars: American Icons, featured more than forty drawings, paintings, prints, and photographs which Warhol created from 1946 to 1986.

Below are some of our favorite automotive pieces that Warhol created.

Click here to buy the large-format book containing Warhol’s automotive artwork for DaimlerChrysler, Andy Warhol: Cars: Business Art.

Click here to buy some of Warhol’s car posters.