MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Dollar Sign was a series of prints Warhol originally produced in 1982. After Warhol published his renowned Factory Editions prints, he began collaborating with two anonymous acquaintances from Belgium in 1970 on a second series of prints, including portraits of Marilyn Monroe, with their company Sunday B. Morning. The original idea behind this partnership was to play on the concept of mass production and originality, and the prints would have a black ink stamp on the back saying “fill in your own signature”. The new prints were identical to the Factory Editions and so Warhol was deliberately undermining the strict ‘authenticity’ of Factory Edition prints. At a certain moment, conversations between Warhol and the Belgians faltered, and he started to have second thoughts. However, by this time, he had already handed over the photo negatives, colour codes and other tools used to produce the prints. Printing in Belgium went ahead, retaining the rights to do so. Warhol decided not to pursue the matter. To add to this quirk in Belgian art history, Warhol would even sign some of the Sunday B. Monday prints with: ”This is not by me. Andy Warhol”, which served to increase their value.