Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol began his career in the 1950s as a commercial artist, and his early work included many advertisements for women’s shoes. This motif continued throughout his career, including in his fine art, as seen in drawings, watercolors and screen prints, some of which also incorporated gold leaf.

In Two High Heels in Still Life, Warhol combines shoes with an apple, a slice of watermelon, and other fruit, amongst the weave of a picnic basket—set upon the ground of a blanket—with butterflies floating above. The chartreuse background gives the appearance of grass. Here Warhol transforms a traditional still life into a sense of summertime—including one of his most iconic early images, the woman’s shoe.