Is Brillo Box an Illustration?

Thomas E. Wartenberg uses Warhol's work to illustrate his theory of illustration.

Recently I took part in an ‘Author Meets Critics’ session at the 2024 College Art Association Meetings. The three critics of my book, Thoughtful Images: Illustrating Philosophy Through Art (OUP, 2023), were all artists. Each had insightful things to say about the relationship between my claims about illustration and their own artistic production. I was genuinely touched to hear how my book had affected their understanding of their own work as well as how it shifted their previously dismissive attitude towards ‘mere’ illustration. But afterwards, during the question-answer session, a question arose that has been preoccupying me ever since.

During my talk I had mentioned Andy Warhol’s famous 1964 artwork Brillo Soap Pads Box, aka Brillo Box. The work is a replica of the cardboard cartons containing boxes of Brillo soap pads you can buy from supermarkets. Warhol had numerous boxes fabricated out of plywood, and with the assistance of Gerard Malanga and Billy Linich, he then painted and silkscreened the boxes with the Brillo product logo and associated words and colors. The result looked almost identical to the standard cardboard cartons containing Brillo soap pads. The question I’ve been thinking about is: ‘Is Brillo Box an illustration?’ Despite having discussed the work both in my book and my response to the critics at the CAA session, I had not considered that specific question. I was surprised by it and did not have a good answer to it at the time. But I have continued to think about it, and, as a result, have modified some claims I made about illustration in Thoughtful Images.

Illuminating Illustrations

To explain this, it will be helpful to provide a little background about the claims I made in Thoughtful Images about the nature of illustration.