One Dollar Bill

Andy Warhol obsessively documented the world around him, captivating the art world with his Pop-defining iterations of mass-produced images. In 1962, he began to focus on U.S. currency. In this drawing, based on his photographic studies, he transformed the utter ordinariness of a one-dollar bill through altered scale, unusual configuration (the faceted landscape of crumpled paper), and gestural drawing techniques. Even if the dollar bill is readily recognized, the image is seen in a new light—a distinctive, aesthetically pleasing work of art surprising in its power to provoke contemplation.