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Andy Warhol – Electric Chairs

PUBLISHED IN: Artwork Brochures

Electric Chairs197135 3/8 x 47 7/8 in. ea.screenprint

Provenance

Julian Schnabel, purchased directly from the artist
Private Collection
Private Collection, New York

Literature

Feldman & Schellmann II.74-83

all works by Andy Warhol

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Andy Warhol is synonymous with American art in the second half of the 20th century and is known for his iconic portraits and consumer products, mixing popular culture and fine art, redefining what art could be and how we approach art. While many of Warhol’s works may not represent famed individuals, his depictions of inanimate objects elevate his subjects to a level of celebrity. Warhol first depicted shoes early in his career when he worked as a fashion illustrator and returned to the theme in the 1980s, combining his fascination with consumerism and glamour. With his constant desire to fuse high and low culture, Warhol chose to highlight something that is so ubiquitous as shoes. The subject can denote poverty or wealth, function, or fashion. Warhol glamorizes the pile of footwear, covering them with a patina of glitzy diamond dust, further blurring the meaning between utilitarian need and stylized statement piece.

Diamond Dust Shoes (Black and White)

40 x 59 1/2 in.

screenprint with diamond dust

Known for his fascination with fame, celebrity, and cultural icons, Andy Warhol occasionally reached beyond his contemporaries to include historical figures. Of particular interest, Goethe's theories on color emphasized how colors are perceived and their psychological impact, contrasting with the prevailing Newtonian physics-based understanding of color as a scientific phenomenon. Although there is no direct link that Goethe's color theory directly inspired Warhol to select him as a subject, it thematically highlights how we view Warhol's art as engaging with historical traditions to symbolize a bond between their respective fields and eras. In this sense, the work serves as an homage and a cross-temporal collaboration, linking Warhol's visual language with Goethe's awareness of color as a potent, stimulating element in perception.

silkscreen in colors

ANDY WARHOL - Goethe - silkscreen in colors - 38 x 38 in.

silkscreen in colors

Beginning in 1963, with a silkscreen derived from a photo booth strip, Warhol repeatedly explored his likeness, culminating with the iconic "Fright Wig" image. Essential to his depiction of celebrities and self-representation, the Polaroid photograph played a crucial role in his work and our perceptions of his massive contribution to post-war art in America. The two images presented, dark and spooky, are beautifully crafted, well-staged portraits. Enveloped in a moody ambiance that eviscerates his body, these self-portraits depict Andy clad in this iconic wig and dark aviator sunglasses, set against a backdrop so deeply shadowed that his head seems to float in a void of darkness. Warhol loved role-playing, and here it is in spades!

Self-Portrait in Fright Wig

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in. ea.

Polaroid, Polacolor

ANDY WARHOL - Ford car - graphite on paper - 11 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.

11 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.

graphite on paper

It is remarkable the speed with which the art world embraced Andy Warhol after July 1962 when his paintings of thirty-six paintings of Campbell's Soup Cans were displayed at The Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. Among his last hand-painted works, Warhol soon discovered silkscreen, the medium with which he is most closely associated. Whereas the handcrafted soup-can paintings look mechanically produced, the silkscreen was a mechanical and commercial process that enabled Warhol to produce unlimited precise repetitions and variations of key subjects. As one of the 32 original varieties, Vegetable remains a pop culture phenomenon, turning up on everything from plates and mugs to neckties, t-shirts, and surfboards.

Campbell's Soup I: Vegetable Soup

40 x 28 1/2 in.

screenprint on paper

Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans series marks a pivotal moment in his career and the Pop Art movement. The series, consisting of 32 canvases, each depicting a different flavor, revolutionized the art world by elevating mundane, everyday consumer goods to the status of high art. The screen print Pepper Pot from 1968 employs his signature style of vivid, flat colors and repeated imagery, characteristic of mass production and consumer culture. Screen printing, a commercial technique, aligns with Warhol's interest in blurring the lines between high art and commercial art, challenging artistic values and perceptions.

Pepper Pot from Campbell's Soup

screenprint in colors

Few celebrities define the 70s like Farrah Fawcett. A charter member of the television show "Charlie's Angels," her iconic hairstyle known as "The Farrah," featuring soft, flowing layers that framed the face, with a bouncy, voluminous appearance achieved by flipping the ends of the layers outward became a defining look of the decade. Warhol's portrait represents Fawcett herself and provides broader commentary on the period's social and cultural trends. Most compellingly, these two gorgeous portraits testify to her natural, sun-kissed features and healthy, athletic physique that resonated as a symbol of ideal beauty during her time.

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in. ea.

Polaroid, Polacolor

Andy loved the photo booth. It was a machine, not a person, taking the pictures. It provided instant gratification and aligned with Warhol's fascination with authenticity and the candid moments in life, and as the present example proves, private moments filled with genuine moments of sheer fun and unguarded enjoyment. Andy often coaxed people to his favorite 42nd St. Photo booth, where the sitter would conjure up their best movie star impression, and Warhol would produce multiple images in various color combinations. The first of Warhol's thousands of commissioned portraits was of Ethel Scull, a mosaic of thirty-six silkscreened images taken in a 42nd Street picture booth near Times Square. He coaxed the art collector to do her best movie star impressions there. By the 1970s, commissioned portraits were a solid portion of his income.

7 3/4 x 1 1/2 in.

gelatin silver print

Andy Warhol carried a Polaroid camera as a relentless chronicler of life and its encounters from the late 1950s until he died in 1987. The vast collection of Polaroids he amassed are spontaneous, unpolished, often raw, and serve as a chronicle of his time, similar to how Instagram reflects our current era. Another person could have taken this self-portrait, creating a thinly veiled proposition asking the viewer to accept it as a self-portrait, or perhaps it was achieved solely by Warhol using an external self-timer accessory. It is a portrait that celebrates the device upon which Warhol's life essentially turned, a carefully staged homage to his relationship with the Polaroid camera.

4 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.

ANDY WARHOL - Self-Portrait - Polaroid, Polacolor - 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

Polaroid, Polacolor

ANDY WARHOL - Self-Portrait in Fright Wig - Polaroid - 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

Self-Portrait in Fright Wig

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

ANDY WARHOL - Warhol Self-Portrait (Fright Wig) - Polaroid, Polacolor - 4 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.

Warhol Self-Portrait (Fright Wig)

4 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.

Polaroid, Polacolor

ANDY WARHOL - Self-Portrait with Camera (diptych) - Polaroid, Polacolor - 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in. ea.

Self-Portrait with Camera (diptych)

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in. ea.

Polaroid, Polacolor

In the most general sense, Warhol's use of skulls in his work contemplates the inevitable reality of human existence. Historical references to skulls used in memento mori and vanitas paintings abound but for Warhol, a skull provided a deeply personal reflection on his mortality. The motif was also far more multifaced for Warhol, touching on personal philosophy and aesthetic considerations. On Andy's playful and ironic side, a skull starkly contrasts celebrity culture, glamour, and the superficial aspects of popular culture. It was a wry rebuttal to the work responsible for building his financial empire, undermining the notion of eternal fame and immortality often implicit in his celebrity portraiture.

Self-Portrait with Skull

4 1/4 x 3 1/2 in.

Polaroid, Polacolor

Because Warhol was concerned about hair loss, no prop was more critical in crafting his public persona than a wig. Wigs provided his signature look and are an extension of his interest in transformation, performance, and the fluidity of identity. The fright wigs, with their tousled, unkempt appearance, add an element of wildness and eccentricity to Warhol's look. But here, the wig cascades down in a straight, helmet-like coiffure that evokes a more severe and formidable nature. All wigs, for Warhol, provided an opportunity for theatrical role-playing and reflect his fascination with artificiality and self-invention.

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

Polaroid, Polacolor II

ANDY WARHOL - Campbell's Soup Can (Tomato) - screenprint in colors on colored t-shirt - 29 x 26 1/2 in.

Campbell's Soup Can (Tomato)

29 x 26 1/2 in.

screenprint in colors on colored t-shirt

ANDY WARHOL - David Hockney and Andy Warhol - Polaroid, Polacolor - 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

David Hockney and Andy Warhol

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

Polaroid, Polacolor

ANDY WARHOL - Lee Radziwill - Polaroid, Polacolor - 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in. ea.

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in. ea.

Polaroid, Polacolor

ANDY WARHOL - Northwest Coast Mask - screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board - 38 x 38 in.

Northwest Coast Mask

screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board

ANDY WARHOL - Self-Portrait - Polaroid, Polacolor - 4 1/2 x 3 3/8 in.

4 1/2 x 3 3/8 in.

Polaroid, Polacolor

ANDY WARHOL - Self-Portrait in Drag - Polaroid - 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

Self-Portrait in Drag

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

ANDY WARHOL - The Shadow (from Myths) - color screenprint with diamond dust on paper - 37 1/2 x 37 1/2 in.

The Shadow (from Myths)

37 1/2 x 37 1/2 in.

color screenprint with diamond dust on paper

Warhol's "Electric Chair" is undoubtedly the most macabre of Warhol's 70-odd paintings and prints from the Death and Disaster series yet its brilliant colors bring a stark, ameliorating contrast to the subject matter. The irony is that repetition and the mechanized purity of screen-prints that elevated Campbell's soup cans to fine art status serve a different purpose here. They act as desensitizing agents that, by degrees, create emotional separation from the gruesome, the macabre, death and mortality. As if to further declare his intentions, Warhol reduced the cavernous room of earlier iterations to a shallow plane, giving a more tightly focused view of the chair itself, its morbidity meliorated under blocks of yellow, pink, blue, and orange.

35 3/8 x 47 3/4 in.

screenprint in colors on woven paper

ANDY WARHOL - Self Portrait at 'Flowers' Exhibition - Polaroid, Polacolor - 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

Self Portrait at 'Flowers' Exhibition

4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.

Polaroid, Polacolor

ANDY WARHOL - Cow, 1976 - screenprint on wallpaper - 42 7/8 x 27 7/8 in.

42 7/8 x 27 7/8 in.

screenprint on wallpaper

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