Blue Shoe
Enlarge
? The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2009

Reference URL

Blue Shoe 1955
  • Artist Rooms
Shoes and feet fascinated Warhol and feature throughout his oeuvre. After arriving in New York in 1949, he quickly became established as one of the most sought-after illustrators of women?s shoes. He was especially celebrated for his work for I. Miller Shoes, whose reputation was revitalised with Warhol's quirky ads. This drawing illustrates how Warhol completed his blotted-line technique. The linear drawing on the right was hinged to the other sheet of paper. Then, while still wet, the image was printed on to it with this secondary image becoming the original, which was then coloured with ink. Warhol from an early stage employed studio assistants to help him complete these commercial illustrations quickly; this practice would later evolve into the 'production line' techniques in his famous studio, the Factory.

Glossary Open

Blotted-Line Technique

Andy Warhol first experimented with this form of print-making whilst a student and it would later characterise his commercial work of the 1950s. With two sheets of paper hinged together, a pencil drawing is made on one sheet which is subsequently traced over with ink. Whilst the ink is still wet the sheets of paper are pressed together, thus transferring the line. The result is a broken, yet apparently intuitive, line drawing.

Oeuvre

French term which is used to refer to an artist's total body of work.

Blotted-Line Technique, Oeuvre

Details

  • Acc. No. AR00251
  • Medium Pen and ink and dye on paper
  • Size 37.00 x 116.80 cm
  • Credit ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Acquired jointly through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008

See related artworks

Part of

Artist Rooms

Play