Warhol's silkscreen "Mao“ marks the transition from his first period of graphic art in the 1960s to his second period as of 1972. Despite repeating the principle of ten color variations of the same theme with the Marilyn portraits, but now the prints are made at the same time as the painting, thus they are equal and not mere follow-ups of the paintings. "Mao is Warhol's first non-American motif, which he took on the year Richard Nixon went to China, the time that Mao became a fascinating personality for Americans and thus an interesting object for Warhol. The Maos show […], that appearances regarded as serious threats to the capitalist fundament of the "American way of life“ can be integrated into culture as art or fashion, thus they lose their revolutionary status. The Maos can also be interpreted as imitations of the countless Mao posters in China. […] Through the effective combination of pure and intensive colors Warhol turned Mao's sincere face into a series of funny and appealing caricatures.“ (Roberta Bernstein, in: Frayda Feldman und Jörg Schellmann, Andy Warhol. Prints. Catalog raisonné of prints, Munich/New York 1989, p. 11). Through processing the portrait with a lurid lipstick and eyeshadow, as it was the case with all portraits, Warhol created a parody of the well-known portrait of the Chinese communist leader and made him yet another icon of American consumerism, in line with Marilyn, the Campbell's soups and Mick Jagger.