Andy Warhol: The Textiles – the iconic artist's 'overlooked' beginnings
Warhol's early commercial work 'presaged' his ascendance to pop art stardom

During the decade before he emerged as "the world's most famous postwar artist" in the 1960s, Andy Warhol worked in the world of commercial design and advertising, said Giles Sutherland in The Times. His illustrations for magazines and retail clients are already well documented, but one aspect of his pre-fame career – his work as a textile designer – has until recently been overlooked.
Warhol "did not design clothing, nor was he a couturier"; he sold his patterns to manufacturers, "often anonymously". The printed fabrics, emblazoned with "repeated motifs" of "socks, ice-creams, hats, shoes and butterflies", would then be used to create all kinds of "colourful fashion items", from "petite dresses" to "underwear, blouses and swimwear".
This exhibition brings together more than 35 original examples of Warhol's textile work, and "convincingly" argues that his commercial designs "necessarily presaged his emergence into pop art". It is "impeccably presented, researched and curated". All in all, it's "difficult to fault".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Warhol began working as a commercial designer shortly after arriving in New York from his native Pittsburgh in 1949, said Francesca Peacock in The Daily Telegraph. His textiles were soon being sold across the US, mainly through department store catalogues. Examples of his handiwork here demonstrate that he was already on the way to establishing his artistic signature.
Nothing, it seems, can escape "his delight in repetition": in mid-1950s textile patterns, he covers fabrics with everything from "apples to rulers"; on one 1956 pattern, printed onto "a dress with a quintessential mid-1950s silhouette", he draws socks in a bewildering variety of styles – "striped, argyle, polka-dot, and baby booties". The one complaint about this otherwise "joyful" show is its insistence that his textile designs were somehow more "pure" than his other commercial commissions. There is no getting around the truth: what we have here is simply "a collection of material, consumer objects".
"The clothes themselves feel very 1950s and Doris Day, prim and conservative," said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. When you see swatches of his fabrics on their own, however, "the unmistakable Warhol touch magics away the date and takes us somewhere timeless". His patterns are "light and airy", becoming ever "cheekier" and more absurdist as the show progresses: "birds and butterflies" on early pieces give way to "unlikely pieces of gardening equipment or weird types of writing implement"; everything is drawn with his "blotchy trademark line", usually against a white background.
There's humour, too. One cloth is "covered with pretend buttons", another with Manhattan pretzels; Warhol's "plebeian fondness for shopfront America" was not ironic. This show is a "delightful" exploration of "a lost bit of Warhol".
Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh (0131-550 3660, dovecotstudios.com). Until 18 May
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Colleges are canceling affinity graduations amid DEI attacks but students are pressing on
In the Spotlight The commencement at Harvard University was in the news, but other colleges are also taking action
-
When did computer passwords become a thing?
The Explainer People have been racking their brains for good codes for longer than you might think
-
What to know before 'buying the dip'
the explainer Purchasing a stock once it has fallen in value can pay off — or cost you big
-
Fast-and-furious zombies, serial killer sharks and a matchmaking conundrum in June's new movies
the week recommends Danny Boyle is back with '28 Years Later' and Dakota Johnson has a Sophie's choice to make in 'Materialists'
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'
-
6 well-preserved homes built in the 1930s
Feature Featuring a restored 1934 colonial in Arizona and a cold-storage warehouse turned loft in New York City
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow: memoir of 'harsh beauty' after loss
The Week Recommends Chinese-American novelist Yiyun Li's 'devastating' memoir explores the deaths of her two sons
-
Sirens: entertaining satire on the lives of the ultra-wealthy stars Julianne Moore
The Week Recommends This 'blackly comic affair' unfurls at a 'breakneck speed'
-
Mrs Warren's Profession: 'tour-de-force' from Imelda Staunton and daughter Bessie Carter
The Week Recommends Mother-daughter duo bring new life to George Bernard Shaw's morality play
-
'Less is more' in The Fifth Step
The Week Recommends Jack Lowden from Slow Horses is 'staggeringly good' in this new production at London's @sohoplace
-
Critics' choice: Steak houses that break from tradition
Feature Eight hours of slow-roasting prime rib, a 41-ounce steak, and a former Catholic school chapel turned steakhouse