Venus Over Manhattan has opened an Andy Warhol show, just in time for Frieze. The exhibition of 18 paintings comes from a series from the 1960s entitled ‘Death and Disaster’.
Warhol had a well-known obsession with the media. He collected all kinds of newspapers, magazines and supermarket tabloids. As an artist, the power of ‘mass-circulated media images’ was priceless and therefore he carefully appropriated this into much of his work over the span of his career.
This particular series, produced between 1964 and 1965, was Warhol’s way of exploring ‘growing mass media’s exploitation of tragic imagery in post-war America’. And this, of course, is most relevant today in the way news and current events are covered. The images – some extreme and frightening – are still today infiltrating mass media, taking the form of riots, terrorist attacks, suicides, criminals, car, train and plane accidents and more.
With his 'Little Electric Chairs' Warhol references a news wire service from 13 January 1953 announcing the historic death sentences of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
In his essay on the series, American poet Gerard Malanga credited Warhol with saying that ‘[a]dding pretty colors to a picture as gruesome as this would change people’s perceptions of acceptance’. And so, some regard this series as among Warhol’s most important contributions to pop art. As the gallery says, ‘it reveals the banality that can attenuate even a topic as tragic as capital punishment’.
Well-known for his obsession with the media, Warhol produced the series between 1964 and 1965 to explore ‘growing mass media’s exploitation of tragic imagery in post-war America’
With ‘Little Electric Chairs’, Warhol references a news wire service from 13 January 1953, announcing the historic death sentences of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Pictured: Big Electric Chair, 1967–68
‘It reveals the banality that can attenuate even a topic as tragic as capital punishment,’ the gallery explains. Pictured: Little Electric Chair, 1964
INFORMATION
’Little Electric Chairs’ is on view until 18 June. For more details, visit Venus Over Manhattan’s website
Photography courtesy VENUS New York and Andy Romer, © 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
ADDRESS
Venus Over Manhattan
980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10075
-
The ultimate beach accessory? The Fiat Topolino Vilebrequin is a true meeting of mindsFiat has teamed up with swimwear specialists Vilebrequin to create a Collector’s Edition of the pint-sized Topolino EV that pays homage to the glamour of Riviera life
-
Multi-functional furniture, integrated planting and a felt landscape shape this new officeZeller & Moye’s new HQ space for a German IT company has been designed to accommodate every kind of office working situation, from introverted cubicles through to flexible open-plan spaces
-
Step inside a Hollywood Hills home where European design meets Californian easeLA studio Broad Project takes us inside its cinematic renovation of a 1960s Spanish Revival home in the Hollywood Hills
-
‘Her pictures looked like pictures everybody knew were the truth’: Diane Arbus at the ArmoryMatthieu Humery curates more than 400 of Arbus’ photographs at New York’s Park Avenue Armory – every picture she was known to have printed
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscapeArtist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThis week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, DiversGeordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took placeMarc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colourThe Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
-
The alternative art fairs championing emerging artistsThe lower barrier to entry to these smaller and specialist art fairs make them hubs of grassroots creativity, allowing emerging names to establish a foothold in the industry
