Bruno Bischofberger Gallery, Zurich and Fabian Carlsson Gallery, London Private Collection, Gothenburg Acquired from the above by the present owner
Catalogue Essay
Andy Warhol’s Rollover Mouse from the series Toy Paintings is an outstanding example of the artist’s preoccupation with commercialism and animation. Created in 1983, this painting is part of the artist’s later body of work that witnessed a resurgence of his energetic and colorful canvases.
Serving as a more child-oriented expression of Warhol’s acclaimed advertising motifs of Brillo and Mott’s boxes from the 1960s, his Toy Paintings series embodies the same consumerist spirit. His ecstatically painted silkscreen canvases consist of popular children’s toys that are now collector’s items. Rollover Mouse was modeled after a Japanese wind-up toy mouse, contained in a simple rectangular cardboard box displaying playful pictures of the toy in action. Appropriating this model, Warhol flattens the imagery, simplifies and brightens the colors and removes the brand name. The radiant red pigment paired with simple yet artful graphics and animated characteristics jump off the canvas, captivating the viewers’ attention. Additionally, the cropped and diagonal orientation of the print manifests an energy and dynamism that defines Warhol’s Pop-Art style and brings the mouse to life.
The standout Zurich gallerist and friend of Warhol, Bruno Bischofberger, who hosted one of the most significant Pop-Art shows in Europe in 1965, later requested a series of work conducive for children and bought the resulting 100-work compilation with London gallerist Fabian Carlsson. These works were then displayed in Bischofberger’s gallery, hung at children’s eye level in an installation that resembled a shiny and whimsical toy store. Fascinated by the universality of toys and their ability to transcend age and nationality, Warhol explained, ''Lots of international toys [were] included because a lot of them are the cutest of any I've seen'' (Andy Warhol, quoted in Seth S. King, “Art: An Andy Warhol Show, For Children’s Eyes”, The New York Times, August 25, 1985, p. 70).
Andy Warhol was the leading exponent of the Pop Art movement in the U.S. in the 1960s. Following an early career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol achieved fame with his revolutionary series of silkscreened prints and paintings of familiar objects, such as Campbell's soup tins, and celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe. Obsessed with popular culture, celebrity and advertising, Warhol created his slick, seemingly mass-produced images of everyday subject matter from his famed Factory studio in New York City. His use of mechanical methods of reproduction, notably the commercial technique of silk screening, wholly revolutionized art-making.
Working as an artist, but also director and producer, Warhol produced a number of avant-garde films in addition to managing the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founding Interview magazine. A central figure in the New York art scene until his untimely death in 1987, Warhol was notably also a mentor to such artists as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.