老鼠和明星

Online caption This poster features the front and back designs for Rats & Star’s album ‘Soul Vacation’. The eighties Japanese pop group’s name originates in the belief that it is possible to be a ‘rat’, coming from a less prosperous background, and still become a star: a notion close to Warhol’s heart as the son of working-class immigrants. In the design by Warhol from 1983, he draws on this idea of advancement and progression with the left side appearing incomplete, showing the working process or beginnings of creating a screenprint. The right side then shows the finished portraits of the men as stars. He incorporates blocks of colour beneath a black print over which he has layered printed hand-drawn elements.