Flowers, despite their association with being “decorative” are a surprisingly important and reoccurring motif in Andy Warhol’s oeuvre.

In the early 1980’s, Warhol created a number of paintings and screen prints of Poinsettias as gifts to his friends. Poinsettias are evocative of Warhol’s choice in subject matter, as he often embraced objects related to Americana or ubiquitous cultural archetypes and consumerism. It’s no surprise that as the unofficial flower of Christmas, the ultimate American consumer holiday, the poinsettia captivated Andy Warhol.