I wanted to look at Warhol's electric chair next as, although Ive clarified my project isn’t about ‘celebrity’ I must admit I love Warhol and have his 'Jackie O’, ‘Mick Jagger’ and ‘Elvis’ framed in my house and also a postcard wall / installation in my kitchen that has survived through 6 apartments in 3 states including postcards of the man himself, Elvis, Che Guevara and other celebrities. Actually my house is filled with my own artworks and other images of famous muso’s, actors, film directors, activists and such. So maybe I am obsessed by fame. As Kate Hudson said in 'Almost Famous' (something to the effect of) these people are just more interesting than regular people. Certainly, to stick on your walls to remind you of a time and place, gallery, city or shop in which you bought it.
A rare pic of Warhol on the phone picked up at a really cool gallery in Tokyo. Watari-Um. Hey the shots of me were proof pressies from my mate when were doing a med format project together.
The famous pic with Basquiat...whom I LOVE. Was it Moma, or Basquiat's (with Hering) own exhibition here at NGV where I got this postcard? who knows. everybody is here from Picasso to Moriyama to Kubrick.
I’d not really studied the electric chair. Apparently he came back to it again and again. Putting a ‘happy nuance’ on this form of death by making it technicolour. And empty (clearly otherwise would have been problematic, anyway) so it could be; will be used?, about to be used? or was used?. This before / after suggestion is a question of life and death. A work which Alexander Rotter, Co-Head of Contemporary Art Worldwide said on behalf of Sotheby’s ‘captures the metaphysical terror of living in the Technicolor Sixties.’ Which I didn’t know was a thing. I mean, the Vietnam war and all, and later, Nixon. But the 60’s, per se? The Doors, Height Ashbury, peace and love and LSD. Was it?
Warhol’s practice was more than just a fascination with celebrity. He made everyday objects famous, which was the point I guess. The whole ’15 minutes of fame’ thing…still relevant to our society of reality TV today and sure, he did not ACTUALLY make a hell of a lot of the work credited to him, and used people and made boring and pretty bad movies. Yet here is this deeper Warhol. He said ‘At some point I realized that everything I do has something to do with death”. (https://arthive.com/andywarhol/works/267892~Electric_chair)
In my research I discovered Alice Cooper found one called ‘Little Electric Chair’ 'rolled up in a tube' in the 2010’s (presumably in his house...or his ownership. I guess there is an entire generatiion of musicians that just have very llittle collection of the 70's) and planned to sell it May 2021 because he said ‘Im not a Warhol collector. I collect local art’. Indeed, I happen to know he bought the 2nd ‘O’ in the Hollywood sign in an effort to preserve it when the city was in danger of losing it in the late 70’s. Mostly celebs sponsored the other letters.
I digress. And honour that I have turned this research on Warhol’s electric chair into a titillating puff piece about the fame attached the artworks. Like the contradiction I am.
The Electric Chair portfolio is a part of Warhol’s larger Death and Disaster series, a collection focused on the representation of violence, death, and tragedy in the media.
Warhol was both fascinated and disturbed by America’s obsession with tragedy. To him, the media was an inescapable herald of catastrophe.
When placed next to his ‘flower’s’ published the year before Warhol juxtaposes ‘the horror of execution with the candy-coated colors of advertisements, illustrating the relationship between the media and tragedy.’
https://revolverwarholgallery.com/portfolio/electric-chairs-82/
There is speculation that the chair was the one used to execute the Rosenbergs in Sing Sing prison for spying for the Soviet Union. More salacious gossip. As I research further it is simply inspired by the 1953 newspaper picture of the two executions. Yep. Definitely hits home the relationship between media and tragedy we still see today.
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