Mao, 1972

Narrator: Warhol based this large-scale painting of Mao Tse-Tung, the leader of Communist China, on the cover image of a collection of his aphorisms known as The Little Red Book. At the time, that painting of Mao was believed to be the most-reproduced image in the world. 

Donna De Salvo: Not only does he play with Mao as this global cultural figure, as a cult figure, but also through the scale of this particular work, really understands something about the power of an image to convey a philosophy, and a point of view without ever even having to use words.

Narrator: Donna De Salvo. 

Donna De Salvo: Now in these series of paintings, you [also] begin to see Warhol become much more expressive in the background colors that he applies to his canvas. He's still using a photo silkscreen, but he begins to create almost painterly gestures that you would probably associate more with conventional notions of painting.

It was a departure from what was conventionally seen as painting, in the original mark, in the gesture. Here it becomes stylized, it becomes almost a sort of add-on to it, or kind of an accessory.