(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1928 - 1987, New York, New York)
1963
Silkscreen ink and spray paint on linen
82 x 40 in. (208.3 x 101.6 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Purchased with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the L. L. Bottsford Estate Fund
1972.1
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Warhol typically borrowed his images of celebrities from newspapers and publicity photos; this work is based on a publicity still from Elvis Presley’s 1960 western film, Flaming Star. Like most of Warhol’s paintings as well as his Brillo Box sculptures, Single Elvis was created through screenprinting (also called silkscreen), a stenciling process in which a design is transferred to a fine fabric, blank areas are coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is then pushed through the open areas of the fabric to transfer the design onto the printing surface. The technique permits images to be reproduced repeatedly with slight variations in each printing.