Volkswagen
from Ads

Medium: Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Year: 1985
Sheet: 38×38 inches (96.5 x 96.5 cm)
Edition: 190
Artist’s Proofs: 30 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 5 PP
Exhibitor’s Proofs: 5 EP
Hors Commerce: 10 HC
Other: 10 numbered in Roman numerals
Bon a Tirer: 1 BAT
Trial Proofs: 30 TP
Each print is unique (see Feldman & Schellmann IIB.358)
Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New-York
Publisher: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., New York
Literature: Feldman & Schellmann II.358

Each signed and numbered in pencil, with their copyright ink stamp on the reverse

Volkswagen is part of Ads
(Click on picture below to access the Catalogue Entry)

Andy Warhol’s Volkswagen from the 1985 Ads portfolio is an exemplary work that demonstrates the artist’s integral practice of blurring the traditional frontiers of art, commerce and advertising: three worlds that Warhol fuses in harmonious unison. Pulling from globally recognized brands such as Paramount, Chanel and Apple, Warhol deliberately chose powerful advertisements engrained in America’s collective conscious to interrogate the role of consumer culture, fame and status. Isolating the quotidian images from their commercial context, Warhol creates a space to appreciate the aesthetics of the everyday, ubiquitous and influential forms of visual culture crowned with the laurels of legitimized fine art.

Volkswagen uniquely draws upon and amplifies one of the most ingenious and infamous ad campaigns of the postwar period, one that revolutionized the course of advertising. The German car company faced a seemingly impossible task as they sought to market their vehicles to countless American veterans returning from the war who were buying new cars at record rates. The problem was obvious: Volkswagen had been created by Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party to provide affordable vehicles to the German populus. The solution, created by ad firm Doyle Dane Bernbach was striking, presenting an image of a Volkswagen car with a minor cosmetic flaw and a large, stand-alone caption reading ‘lemon’, a word that would have already been synonymous in the American mind with a sub-standard product. It is only on closer look that text underneath the bold caption explains how ‘lemons’ like this example do not pass the eagle-eyed scrutiny of Volkswagen’s exceptional team of final inspectors. This advertisement proved successful in rebranding the company and highlighting the exceptional make of their car through unexpected humor, all the while popularizing the term ‘lemon’ to refer to a problem-riddled, often foreign-made car.

“I see art in everything. Your shoes. That car.
This coffee cup. It’s art if you see it as art.” 

Volkswagen depicts the iconic Volkswagen Beetle advertisement titled “Lemon” from the 1960s. Warhol transforms this advertisement as the Volkswagen Beetle is rendered in vivid colors of bright green with lime highlights which stands out garishly against the purple backdrop. Printed on Lenox Museum Board, this image contains an element of nostalgia. Reproducing the famous advertisement from 1960s America, Warhol returns to the era in which Warhol his fascination with popular and consumer culture led to his rise to fame. This print reflects how Warhol wanted his work to target the majority, rather than the affluent minority, through his choice to depict everyday consumer goods. By transforming an everyday object, a Volkswagen Beetle, into art, Warhol deconstructs the boundary between high and low culture. The image also captures Warhol’s ability to identify icons of 20th century popular culture and memorialize them in his work.

Warhol achieved the cheerful and loose style of his Ads by employing varying methods from acrylics to multiple silkscreen layers. This aesthetic departure from his more mechanical and serialized earlier work such as the Campbell’s Soup cans of the 1960s allowed him to experiment with a range of colorways that retain the compositional elements of the original source image while slowly departing from its original formal qualities. The bold hues are testament to Warhol’s comfort in experimentation and, in keeping with his signature Pop style, the works efface the artist’s hand and are transformed into something that can be mass produced over and over again. While presented as deliberately detached copies of preconceived ideas rather than novel forays into personal expression, Warhol’s Ads series is nevertheless infused with artist’s colorful personality.

Auction Market Overview

Forum Auctions: 31 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 33,000 (Hammer)
GBP 43,356 / USD 57,360

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)|
Volkswagen (Feldman & Schellmann II.358), 1985
Screenprint in colors in on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered from the edition of 190 in pencil
Printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, with his blindstamp
Published by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts Inc., New York, with their rubber-stamp verso

Palm Beach Modern: 21 February 2026
Estimated: USD 60,000 – 80,000
PASSED

ANDY WARHOL (American, 1928-1987)
Volkswagen from the “Ads” portfolio, 1985
(Frayda Feldman and Jorge Schellmann, vol. II, cat. no. 358)
Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Edition: 73/190
Signed with blindstamp

XXXXXXXXXX

Blackwell Auctions: 15 November 2025
Estimated: USD 60,000 – 80,000
USD 55,000 (Hammer)
USD 66,000

ANDY WARHOL (American, 1928-1987)
Volkswagen (FS 358), 1985
from Ads Series
Color Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered II/X  in pencil at lower right
Published by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc.
Printed by Rupert Jasen Smith
With their blind stamps at lower left corner
From the edition of 10 numbered in Roman numerals
Aside from the edition of 190

Christie’s New-York: 23 October 2025
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 95,250

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Volkswagen, from Ads, 1985
(Feldman & Schellmann II.358)
Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, numbered 116⁄190
(there were also 30 artist’s proofs)

Phillips New-York: 21 October 2025
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 61,920

ANDY WARHOL

Volkswagen (F. & S. 358), 1985
From Ads 

Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board

Signed and numbered 73/190 in pencil
(there were also 30 artist’s proofs)
Published by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., New York
With their and the artist’s copyright inkstamp on the reverse

Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 19 July 2025
Estimated: JPY 5,000,000 – 8,000,000
JPY 9,545,000 / USD 64,145

ANDY WARHOL
Volkswagen from ADS (F & S.II.358), 1985
Screenprint
Signed and ed. 190 at lower right image
With a copyright stamp on verso

SBI Art Auction: 23 May 2025
Estimated: JPY 2,000,000 – 4,000,000
JPY 8,050,000 / USD 56,470

ANDY WARHOL
Volkswagen, from Ads (F. & S. Ⅱ.358), 1985
Screenprint
Signed and numbered on the lower right, Copyright stamp on the reverse
From the edition of 190

Christie’s online: 27 March 2025
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 47,880 / USD 61,765

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Volkswagen, from: Ads (Feldman & Schellmann II.358), 1985
Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, numbered 127/190 (there were also thirty artist’s proofs)

Blackwell Auctions: 15 March 2025
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000
USD 60,000 (Hammer)
USD 70,200

ANDY WARHOL (American, 1928-1987)
Volkswagen from Ads Series (FS 358), 1985
Color Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered II/X in pencil at lower right

XXXXXXXXXX

SBI Art Auction: 25 May 2024
Estimated: JPY 5,000,000 – 8,000,000
JPY 11,500,000 / USD 73,272

ANDY WARHOL
Volkswagen, from Ads (F&S II.358), 1985
Screenprint
Signed and numbered on the lower right, Copyright stamp on the reverse
From the edition of 190

Christie’s online: 27 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 52,920 / USD 66,843

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Volkswagen, from: Ads, 1985
Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, numbered 190/190 (there were also thirty artist’s proofs)

Sotheby’s online: 20 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 63,500 / USD 80,645

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
Volkswagen, from Ads, 1985
Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil and numbered 181/190

XXXXXXXXXX

Bonhams LA: 27 September 2022
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 88,575

Sotheby’s Cologne: 10 June 2022
Estimated: EUR 30,000 – 50,000
EUR 88,200 / USD 93,660

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Volkswagen (F&S II.358) from Ads, 1985
Screen-print in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, numbered 149/190

Artnet Auctions: 21 December 2022
Estimated: USD 12,000 – 18,000
USD 50,000

ANDY WARHOL
Volkswagen (from Ads), 1985
Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered HC 2/10  in pencil
An Hors Commerce 2/10 aside from edition of 190

XXXXXXXXXX

Mainichi Auction: 31 July 2021
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 8,800,000 (Hammer)
JPY 11,440,000 / USD 104,290

ANDY WARHOL
Volkswagen (F & S.II.358), 1985
Screenprint
Signed and editioned from 190 at the lower right image
With a copyright stamp on verso

KOLLER Zurich: 1 July 2021
Estimated: CHF 25,000 – 35,000
CHF 110,100 / USD 118,905
AUCTION RECORD FOR VOLKSWAGEN (REGULAR EDITION)

ANDY WARHOL (Pittsburgh 1928–1987 New York)
Volkswagen, from the 10-part series Ads, 1985
Color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Edition: 143/190
Signed in pencil lower right: Andy Warhol

XXXXXXXXXX

Volkswagen (AP/30), 1985
Sotheby’s New-York: 29 April 2019
Estimated: USD 35,000 – 45,000
USD 50,000

Volkswagen (HC 8/10), 1985
Cornette de Saint Cyr Brussels: 10 April 2019
Estimated: EUR 25,000 – 30,000
EUR 40,300 / USD 45,440

Volkswagen (158/190), 1985
Christie’s London: 21 May 2019
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 30,000 / USD 39,380

Volkswagen (103/190), 1985
LA Modern: 17 February 2019
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 46,875

Volkswagen (/X), 1985
Phillips London: 25 January 2018
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 30,000 / USD 42,795

Volkswagen (V/X), 1985
Bonhams London: 27 June 2017
Estimated: GBP 18,000 – 25,000
GBP 31,250 / USD 39,980

Trial Proofs

Volkswagen (TP aside), 1985

Phillips New-York: 20 April 2023
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000
USD 165,100
TRIAL PROOF

ANDY WARHOL
Volkswagen, from Ads, 1985
Unique screen-print in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed, numbered and inscribed
One of 30 trial proofs with a unique color combination

Volkswagen (TP 24/30), 1985

Christie’s New-York: 11 May 2016
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 68,750
TRIAL PROOF

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Volkswagen, from Ads, 1985
Silkscreen ink on paper
Signed and numbered ‘TP 24/30 Andy Warhol’ (lower right)
A unique proof aside from an edition of one hundred and ninety