Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes sculptures were made from plywood.
Warhol hired carpenters to construct boxes from plywood in the exact dimensions of commercial Brillo soap-pad cartons. The surfaces were then painted and finished with silkscreened graphics that closely imitated the original packaging, including its bold red, blue, white, and yellow design.
The first Brillo Boxes appeared in 1964 exhibitions, including Warhol’s solo show at New York’s Stable Gallery. Stacked in large quantities, they looked like warehouse merchandise rather than traditional sculpture. That deliberate resemblance challenged the boundary between commercial packaging and fine art.
The material is sometimes confused because the sculptures copied cardboard supermarket cartons. Warhol also produced later cardboard versions, notably for an exhibition at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet in 1968, but the best-known Brillo Box sculptures from the early series were painted wooden structures made from plywood. Their subject was mass production, even though each sculpture was fabricated by hand.