May 13, 2013 Dana

Drool spotlight: Bugaboo digs deep for design inspiration with the Warhol Collection

1960s art innovator Andy Warhol made his name (and got his 15 minutes, and more) by exploring the boundaries between art and advertising, commercial culture and high culture. Bugaboo designers have made their name by exploring the boundaries between form and function, creating objects of beauty that also happen to be really fantastic baby strollers. So, the collaboration between Bugaboo and the Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is a fascinating one, and the results are exactly as unusual and lovely as you would expect – these limited edition sun canopies and tailored fabrics are just absolutely gorgeous, so chic and unique!

Madeleen Klaasen, chief marketing officer Bugaboo International told the Daily Mail: “With every new collection we look to further unfold the authenticity, style and originality of Andy Warhol’s extraordinary legacy.” The “Flowers” and “Cars” prints are on sale now, and more designs are expected later this year.

Our only question is: what’s the deal with the flowers? Where are the soup cans, and Marilyn? We did a little research, and it turns out that this somewhat more obscure choice works because Warhol meant it to. The background story: Warhol’s 1964-65 Flowers series was built on a 1964 photograph of seven hibiscus flowers, printed in Modern Photography Magazine. Warhol cropped the photograph into a perfect square with four asymmetrically placed flowers, giving Warhol “complete freedom with orientation.” The panels of flowers are never upside-down, and can be displayed singly, in giant grids – or, adapted to a canvas of any shape or size, including stroller upholstery!

While the subject matter, bright colors, and simple arrangement of the “Flowers” paintings may seem like a sentimental departure from Warhol’s typical work, his collaborators maintain that there’s a continuity. His assistant Ronnie Cutrone wrote that the early Flower paintings were about “life and death”:

“Don’t forget, at that time, there was flower power and flower children. We were the roots, the dark roots of that whole movement. None of us were hippies or flower children. Instead, we used to goof on it… And as decorative art, it’s pretty dense. There is a lot of depth in there… You have this shadowy dark grass, which is not pretty, and then you have these big, wonderful, brightly colored flowers. It was always that juxtaposition that appears in his art again and again that I particularly love.”

We know the pictures look great, but you really should experience the Bugaboo Warhol collection up close – and you’ll have your chance in less than two weeks, at the Drool Baby Expo, coming up on May 21. Get your tickets today at droolbabyexpo.com.