Acrylic paint and silkscreen on 2 canvases
Pop Art and its Legacy
Tate Modern
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andy-warhol-2121" aria-label="More by Andy Warhol" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Andy Warhol</a>
Hamburger
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
advertising
emotions, concepts and ideas
food and drink
formal qualities
hamburger
inscriptions
lifestyle and culture
objects
popular culture
repetition
society
symbols and personifications
title of work
word
<p><span>Hamburger</span> is a duplicated image of an advertisement, silkscreened in black onto canvas with a white background. In this high contrast reproduction the original image has been simplified to the extent that most of the detail has been lost and only the black outline remains. The central line of text exclaims ‘HAMBURGER’ in capital letters, with the words ‘Wholesome’ and ‘Delicious’ in smaller text beneath, with no reference to a particular brand name. Warhol doubled the image to form a diptych, which has then been set within one frame to make a single work. The light coloured background and black ink mark a departure from the bold colours of Warhol’s earlier prints.</p>
painting acrylic paint silkscreen 2 canvases
3 April 2009 – 14 March 2010
2010-03-14
3 April 2009 – 14 March 2010
2010-03-14
2009-04-03
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2009-04-03
Andy Warhol
Collection based display
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
2011-03-27
Southampton City Art Gallery (Southampton, UK)
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts
2011-03-27
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
24 September 2011 – 26 February 2012
2012-02-26
24 September 2011 – 26 February 2012
2012-02-26
2011-09-24
De La Warr Pavilion (Bexhill on Sea, UK)
http://www.dlwp.com/
2011-09-24
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
2 June 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2 June 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-06-02
Ferens Art Gallery (Hull, UK)
http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/museumcollections
2012-06-02
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Warhol
Loan-out
8 February 2013 – 28 April 2013
2013-04-28
8 February 2013 – 28 April 2013
2013-04-28
2013-02-08
The MAC: Metropolitan Arts Centre (Belfast, UK)
2013-02-08
ARTIST ROOMS 2013: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
19 March 2016 – 12 June 2016
2016-06-12
19 March 2016 – 12 June 2016
2016-06-12
2016-03-19
Firstsite (Colchester, UK)
http://www.firstsite.uk.net/
2016-03-19
ARTIST ROOMS 2016: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
19 November 2016 – 16 April 2017
2017-04-16
19 November 2016 – 16 April 2017
2017-04-16
2016-11-19
Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.whitworth.man.ac.uk
2016-11-19
ARTIST ROOMS 2016: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
27 February 2023
27 February 2023
2023-02-27
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2023-02-27
ARTIST ROOMS Texts
Collection based display
15 March 2025 – 29 June 2025
2025-06-29
15 March 2025 – 29 June 2025
2025-06-29
2025-03-15
MK Gallery (Milton Keynes, UK)
2025-03-15
Andy Warhol
Loan-out
Hamburger
support, each: 1832 × 2037 × 33 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Hamburger</i> is a duplicated image of an advertisement, silkscreened in black onto canvas with a white background. In this high contrast reproduction the original image has been simplified to the extent that most of the detail has been lost and only the black outline remains. The central line of text exclaims ‘HAMBURGER’ in capital letters, with the words ‘Wholesome’ and ‘Delicious’ in smaller text beneath, with no reference to a particular brand name. Warhol doubled the image to form a diptych, which has then been set within one frame to make a single work. The light coloured background and black ink mark a departure from the bold colours of Warhol’s earlier prints.</p>
<p>
<i>Hamburger </i>is one of several works created by Warhol in the mid-1980s in which he revisited the forms and motifs of his work from the 1960s. This work was part of a series called <i>Ads and Illustrations</i> of which there are other examples in the ARTIST ROOMS collection (for instance <i>Paratrooper Boots</i>,<i> </i>Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-paratrooper-boots-ar00588" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00588</span></a>, <i>Energy-Power</i>,<i> </i>Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-energy-power-ar00237" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00237</span></a>, and <i>Repent and Sin No More</i>, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-repent-and-sin-no-more-ar00234" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00234</span></a>, all c.1985–6). The advertisements were primarily taken from newspapers, traced by hand and then printed onto canvas. As such they have a looser, graphic quality than the artist’s highly stylised photo-silkscreen works printed from Polaroid photographs. This particular silkscreen was reused multiple times. In other versions of <i>Hamburger </i>Warhol experimented with different colours for the background and the text, such as red printed on yellow. Despite these changes, however, he maintained the simple two-tone scheme throughout the series.</p>
<p>Warhol’s choice of subject matter speaks to the artist’s interest in Americana (objects that epitomise American culture). In a 1977 interview for the magazine <i>High Times</i> Warhol responded to the question, ‘What do you like to eat?’ with the remark, ‘Just plain food. Plain American food’ (quoted in O’Brien 1977, p.259). The hamburger in particular was a recurrent motif in Warhol’s work. For instance, in a short video from 1981 Warhol filmed himself eating a hamburger alone at a table, in silence, with an impassive expression. Despite its repeated use in the artist’s work, the meaning attached to the hamburger motif was often ambiguous. That Warhol chose to revisit this iconic subject in the <i>Ads and Illustrations </i>series is noteworthy. The other silkscreen prints from this series in the ARTIST ROOMS collection make direct references to war, spirituality and religion in Reagan-era America. Yet although <i>Hamburger</i> seems to offer a more anodyne subject matter, it might be interpreted within the context of the escalation of the Cold War and the ensuing public fears of the nuclear threat from the Soviet Union. Specifically, the lines radiating outwards from the centre of the image, together with the bulbous shape of the burger bun, visually refer to the outline of an atomic mushroom cloud. In this way <i>Hamburger </i>articulates both American optimism and Cold War anxiety. Curator Vincent Fremont has observed that this series of paintings not only echoes the politics of America in the 1980s, but also ‘continues to bluntly reflect the world we live in today’, with similar anxieties and concerns following us into the twenty-first century (Buchloh and Fremont 2002, p.18).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Glenn O’Brien, ‘Interview: Andy Warhol’ (1977) in Kenneth Goldsmith (ed.), <i>I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews: 1962–1987</i>, New York 2004, pp.233–64.<br/>Benjamin Buchloh and Vincent Fremont, <i>Andy Warhol: B&amp;W Paintings, Ads and Illustrations 1985–1986</i>, exhibition catalogue, Gagosian Gallery, New York and London 2002, reproduced p.19.<br/>Frayda Feldman and Jörg Schellmann, <i>Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962–1987</i>,<i> </i>New York<i> </i>2003, p.354, reproduced p.255.</p>
<p>Oliver Lurz<br/>The University of Edinburgh<br/>January 2012</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS.</i>
</p>
</div>

Summary
2016-03-18T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>During the mid 1980s Warhol returned to the newspaper adverts that had informed his paintings of the early 1960s. He created a group of works called ‘Ad’s and Illustrations’ that differed from his photographic screenprints and highly stylised images of celebrities. They are mostly black and white and were created by tracing the original adverts by hand, which creates a looser, graphic quality. During the 1980s the U.S.A. was still in the depths of the Cold War. Within this context three themes emerge in these paintings: war, death and religion. This diptych, featuring the iconic American hamburger, is reminiscent of Warhol’s earlier screenprints of American popular culture. Yet it also resembles both a mushroom cloud (associated with nuclear explosions) and a glowing halo.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
advertising emotions, concepts and ideas food and drink formal qualities hamburger inscriptions lifestyle and culture objects popular culture repetition society symbols and personifications title of work word