An electrifying example from the Myths series of 1981, the present work embodies Andy Warhol’s singular insight into the bombastic relationship between celebrity and consumer culture in American society. An image of absolute iconic gravitas, Myths (Multiple) depicts instantly recognisable figures from American pop culture: Superman, Santa Claus, Howdy Doody, Greta Garbo, Mickey Mouse, Uncle Sam, Mammy, Dracula and the Wicked Witch of the West pervade the surface of the canvas in high-key tones of bubblegum pink, red, turquoise, yellow and lime green. Amongst these serially reproduced pop culture icons is the vertical repetition of Warhol’s own self-image as the character The Shadow. Posing as the crime-fighting hero from the 1930s radio show, Warhol has presented himself as part of this pantheon of commercial icons, as he intentionally blurs the boundary between individual and symbol, artist and celebrity, hero and commodity. Art historian Greg Metcalf has addressed the commonality among these famed subjects: "While these mythic figures carry a range of important cultural attributes, their shared celebrity stature arises from their being heroes of commercial art. Each of these cultural icons is also a commercial icon, a 'logo,' the symbol of a corporate identity. Each is also an artistic creation from which the artist has been erased" (G. Metcalf, ‘Heroes, Myth, and Cultural Icons,’, in Exh. Cat., College Park, The Art Gallery of the University of Maryland, Reframing Andy Warhol: Constructing American Myths, Heroes and Cultural Icons, 1998, p. 7).

Myths (Multiple) draws upon Warhol’s paintings of the early 1960s, when he first began calling upon the mechanistic faculties of reproduction and duplication in order to confer upon his figures an elevated sense of visual profundity. In 1961, he began to paint clippings from widely popular comic books, and works such as Popeye and Superman, both executed that year, are vivid examples of Warhol’s early graphic vernacular. Warhol also turned to newspaper headlines and advertisements in the 1960s, serially re-producing images derived from media or the commercial world throughout series such as Campbell’s Soup Cans, Coca-Cola Bottles, and Death and Disasters. Warhol also began his portraits of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor, in turn conflating notions of individual and celebrity, image and reality.

Drawing upon such early investigations, the present work takes Warhol’s obsession with commercial logos, fame and celebrity into the fictional realm, as Warhol depicts beloved characters of the silver screen. Yet the composition remains analogous to his earlier work: "What is the difference between Marilyn Monroe, a Campbell's Soup Can, Uncle Sam, Golda Meir, O. J. Simpson, and Mickey Mouse? Nothing, say the portraits of Andy Warhol. They are all icons of America's modern mythology of celebrity. Icons that sell...To paraphrase Joseph Campbell, mythology is the organization of metaphorical figures that connote a state of mind, that transcend their specific place or t.mes ... To paraphrase Andy Warhol's portraits, the mythology of America is celebrity, the gods and demigods are those who can sell through their mass-produced images, and the course of action we, as a culture, are called to is to consume. These portraits record an American culture transformed from hero-to-celebrity worship and the role of cultural icon as celebrity, a commodity, and a piece of commercial art that sells. Through these portraits, Warhol both documented and encouraged the collapse of separation between individual, logo and myth. The celebrity is no longer an individual, but a brand name, a logo” (G. Metcalf cited in: Ibid., p. 6).

Myths (Multiple) showcases Warhol’s revolutionary silkscreen technique, a tool that allowed the artist to convey a radical reinvention of social critique and observation. As opposed to mere illustration, silk-screening permitted Warhol to investigate the intense media craze that shaped American culture through television, film, print, and radio channels. The process was also evocative of a strict.mes chanical function, fundamentally positioning the artist as machine. Through the silkscreen technique, images are created, repeated, and produced en-mass, recalling the production of simple commercial goods at large-scale factories, many of which were Warhol’s chosen subjects. Though particularly reflective of his contemporary culture, the artist’s obsession with film and television characters – an infatuation that spectacularly unfolds on the surface of the present work – can be traced back to a particular moment during his childhood when, at the age of ten, he received a signed photograph of Shirley Temple after writing her a plethora of fan letters. From that point on, movies and magazines became forms of motivational escape from the mundanity of his hometown, Pittsburgh, in the 1930s. Indeed, the characters on the surface of Myths (Multiple) are some of America’s most beloved – the Wicked Witch of the West first appeared on American screens in 1939 as part of The Wizard of Oz, one of the first films to use Technicolour, and one that would become an American pop culture icon. Howdy Doody was the main character in a children’s television show that aired in 1947, while the hugely popular Adventures of Superman television series, based on comic books of the same title, aired in 1952, creating a high-powered franchise that would become one of America’s largest in the television and film industry.

A powerful coalescence of the most emblematic characters of twentieth century film and television, Myths (Multiple) testifies to Warhol’s mastery over contemporary visual culture in America. The present work is imbued with an inherent fascination in the idea of heroes and villains, and indeed mythological archetypes of good and evil. Vividly depicted in the artist’s singular Pop Art aesthetic, the present work exemplifies characters integral to a shared American cultural consciousness, while elevating instantly-recognisable, mass media imagery into the realm of Replica Handbags .