Andy Warhol: Little Electric Chair Paintings

by Gerard Malanga, Peter Halley

People go by and it doesn't matter that someone was killed. I still care about people, but it would be so much easier not to care, it's too hard to care. --Andy Warhol News and death fascinated Warhol, and nowhere is this more uncomfortably reflected than in his paintings of electric chairs. Part of his "Death and Disaster" series, these works borrow from the eye-catching style of tabloid journalism to reflect on the clash of dreams and violence that suffused 60s America. Using photographs collected from various media sources, imagery often deemed too upsetting for the front page, Warhol compels us to look more closely at our own voyeurism and our response and lack of response to violence, as well as our reactions to the universal experience of death that underlies both high-profile public disasters and everyday violence.
Essays by Peter Halley, Gerard Malanga. 9.75 x 10.5 in.
26 color, 4 b/w illustrations

45 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2002