Travelling to Tokyo, Japan, in 1974 for his first solo exhibition in the country, Andy Warhol was inspired by ikebana, the traditional art form of arranging flowers with symbolic meaning in Japan. Here, his collection of Flowers draws inspiration from 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints, showing Warhol's engagement with traditional artistic forms and his interest in Japanese culture.

This series also reflects Warhol's early career as a commercial illustrator, resonating strongly with the strong lines of his illustrations from the 1950s. The delicate rendering and attention to detail in these flower prints harken back to his work for fashion magazines and advertising, highlighting his skill as a draftsman.

Creating this series of Flowers a decade after his vibrant Pop Art compositions of the hibiscus, Warhol continued to explore the duality of nature and Pop in his work by returning to floral themes with a different aesthetic approach. The black and white series serves as a testament to his enduring fascination with nature as a subject, albeit approached from a more contemplative and introspective perspective than his earlier Pop Art flowers from the 1960s.