A Second Absolut Warhol Rediscovered
Absolut is launching a limited-edition bottle in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts inspired by the rediscovery of Warhol’s Absolut ‘blue’ painting. Launching exclusively in global travel retail, the new bottle comes almost 40 years after the vodka maker first collaborated with the American artist.
The global campaign includes 3D OOH billboards, promotional spaces, and store displays at high-traffic airports, London Heathrow, Dubai International, Sydney, and many more. An Absolut Warhol pop-up store at Amsterdam Airport opened earlier this month to mark the new bottle’s official design launch. The limited-edition bottle will hit stores across 50 global markets starting September.
The bottle has a visually artistic and layered aesthetic due to the multi-layered screen-printed design. It combines both internal and external design components, bringing the painting to life by the magnification of the Absolut Vodka within. Each shade of blue has been carefully extracted from the painting, delivering a likeness to the original and a finish through the lens of the liquid. Details include an image of Warhol himself alongside his original signature.
Andy Warhol was the first artist to create artwork based on the silhouette of Absolut’s apothecary-inspired bottle. The artist’s original ‘Absolut Warhol — the bottle painted with vibrant colors on a black background — is considered iconic. For decades, a second Absolut Warhol painting had been rumored to exist, remaining unconfirmed until ‘Blue’ was rediscovered at auction in 2020. Now part of the Absolut Art Collection, the painting will be unveiled at Stockholm’s Spritmuseum on October 17, 2024 as the centerpiece of a new exhibition, Andy Warhol, Money On The Wall, curated by renowned art historian and Warhol biographer, Dr. Blake Gopnik.
