Andy Warhol’s Cow (FS.II 12A) (1976) is a screenprint on wallpaper that exemplifies the artist’s ability to transform even the most pastoral and traditional subjects into icons of Pop Art. Prior to creating the Cow series, Warhol was best known for works that centered on the commercial and the famous—soup cans, soda bottles, and silver-screen stars. But in the mid-1960s, art dealer Ivan Karp encouraged Warhol to explore subjects that were more universal and enduring in art history. Karp proposed cows—“wonderfully pastoral,” he remarked, and “a durable image in the history of the arts.”

With Cow 12A, Warhol applied his signature Pop aesthetic—bold color, repetition, and graphic contrast—to an age-old motif, challenging the notion that Pop Art must focus solely on celebrity or commercial imagery. The result is a series that expands the definition of what can be commodified through art. Though the subject is bucolic and traditional, Warhol's treatment transforms it into something loud, playful, and unmistakably modern.

This work marks a turning point in Warhol’s career. While still engaging with themes of mass production and surface-level appeal, the Cow series reflects a broader artistic inquiry: how meaning shifts when a familiar subject is filtered through the lens of Pop Art. Cow 12A, the final image in the series, crystallizes this transformation. With its aggressive use of color and electric contrast, it has the same arresting visual impact as Warhol’s celebrity portraits—despite depicting a farm animal rather than a film star.

Importantly, the Cow series also inaugurated Warhol’s exploration of wallpaper as a medium. First used to line the walls of his gallery exhibitions, the wallpaper became a backdrop as striking as the works themselves. Visitors to the inaugural Cow wallpaper installation were greeted with rows of vibrantly colored cows, flooding the space with a surreal, almost psychedelic atmosphere.

While Warhol often used complementary colors to create contrast, Cow 12A achieves its pop sensibility by pushing both foreground and background into the realm of the vividly saturated. The image feels both chaotic and comical, lending the piece a whimsical, almost cartoonish quality. The cow seems to pulsate with unnatural intensity—like a cow on an acid trip—evoking amusement and fascination in equal measure.

Ultimately, Cow 12A underscores Warhol’s power to universalize his style. The cow, long a subject of traditional art, is here transformed into a mass-produced icon. Warhol didn’t need a brand or a movie star to achieve Pop; he needed only the right treatment. Through the Factory’s silkscreen process, even a cow becomes a commodity—and in doing so, a Warhol.