Andy Warhol Electric Chairs 1971 The complete set of ten screenprints, in colours, on wove paper. each sheet 90 x 121.4 cm. (35 3/8 x 47 3/4 in.) Signed and dated ‘Andy Warhol ‘71’ in black ballpoint pen and stamp numbered ‘064/250’ on the reverse (there were also 50 artist’s proofs in Roman numerals), published by Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich (with their copyright stamp on the reverse).
Provenance Private Collection, Switzerland Exhibited Hamburg, Deichtorhallen, Andy Warhol - Retrospektive, 1 July 1993 - 19 September 1993 (another example exhibited) Sion, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-arts, La force de la répétition, 29 June 2001 - 17 September 2001 (another example exhibited) Ingelheim, Boehringer Ingelheim, Rathaus der Stadt Ingelheim, Andy Warhol Me, Myself and I, 1 May 2006 - 9 July 2006 (another example exhibited) Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Andy Warhol Other Voices, Other Rooms, 12 October 2007 - 13 January 2008, then travelled to Stockholm, Moderna Museet (9 February 2008 - 4 May 2008), then travelled to London, The Hayward Gallery (8 October 2008 - 18 January 2009) (another example exhibited) Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, Mapplethorpe. Perfection in Form, 25 May 2009 - 27 September 2009 (another example exhibited) Literature S. Feeser, Die Rhein-Pfalz, 6. June 2006, Rheinpfalz Verlag, Ludwigshafen, (illustrated in colour) F. Feldman, J. Schellmann, Claudia Defendi, Andy Warhol Prints - A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987 (FoUrth Edition, revised and expanded), Milan, 2003, P. 78/79, No II.74-83, (illustrated in colour) D. Hickey et al., Andy Warhol 'Giant' Size, New York, 2006, P. 229, (illustrated in colour) P. Rochard, Andy Warhol Me, Myself and I, Ingelheim a.R., 2006, P. 146-151, No 72, (illustrated in colour) E. Meyer-Hermann- Andy Warhol A guide to 706 Items in 2 Hours 56 Minutes. Other Voices, Other Rooms, Stedelijk Museum, Rotterdam, 2007, P. 44-45, (illustrated in colour) R. Marrone, Bruno Bischofberger, Andy Warhol Big Retrospective Painting, Zurich, 2009, P. 108, (illustrated in colour) J. Nelson, Franca Falletti et al., Mapplethorpe. Perfection in Form / La perfezione nella forma, Kempen, 2009, P. 193 (6 of 10 sheets), No 88, (illustrated in colour) Catalogue Essay ‘The more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better and emptier you feel’ ANDY WARHOL The present lot is a complete portfolio comprised of ten prints of the Electric Chair, each depicting the same image, while variations in color, exposure, and painterly gestures give a unique feature to each print. The picture used is derived from the Electric Chair paintings made by Warhol in the 1960’s, now cropped to present the chair alone in the foreground. Warhol’s disturbing images of a solitary mechanism standing in an estranged concrete space is thought to be the electric chair from Sing Sing Penitentiary in Ossining, New York. Made infamous by the executions of the Rosenbergs, the electric chair was a topical subject in New York during this period, generating much public debate. Fundamentally a murder-machine fabricated by the same industrial system of mass production that produced Campbell soup cans and Coke bottles, the electric chair discerns pictorial truths of the death industry in America and the dark side of consumer capitalist culture. Read More Artist Bio Andy Warhol American • 1928 - 1987 A seminal figure in the Pop Art movement of the early 1960s, Andy Warhol's paintings and screenprints are iconic beyond the scope of Art History, having become universal signifiers of an age. An early career in commercial illustration led to Warhol's appropriation of imagery from American popular culture and insistent concern with the superficial wonder of permanent commodification that yielded a synthesis of word and image, of art and the everyday. Warhol's obsession with creating slick, seemingly mass-produced artworks led him towards the commercial technique of screenprinting, which allowed him to produce large editions of his painted subjects. The clean, mechanical surface and perfect registration of the screenprinting process afforded Warhol a revolutionary absence of authorship that was crucial to the Pop Art manifesto. View More Works
Andy Warhol Electric Chairs 1971 The complete set of ten screenprints, in colours, on wove paper. each sheet 90 x 121.4 cm. (35 3/8 x 47 3/4 in.) Signed and dated ‘Andy Warhol ‘71’ in black ballpoint pen and stamp numbered ‘064/250’ on the reverse (there were also 50 artist’s proofs in Roman numerals), published by Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich (with their copyright stamp on the reverse).
Provenance Private Collection, Switzerland Exhibited Hamburg, Deichtorhallen, Andy Warhol - Retrospektive, 1 July 1993 - 19 September 1993 (another example exhibited) Sion, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-arts, La force de la répétition, 29 June 2001 - 17 September 2001 (another example exhibited) Ingelheim, Boehringer Ingelheim, Rathaus der Stadt Ingelheim, Andy Warhol Me, Myself and I, 1 May 2006 - 9 July 2006 (another example exhibited) Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Andy Warhol Other Voices, Other Rooms, 12 October 2007 - 13 January 2008, then travelled to Stockholm, Moderna Museet (9 February 2008 - 4 May 2008), then travelled to London, The Hayward Gallery (8 October 2008 - 18 January 2009) (another example exhibited) Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, Mapplethorpe. Perfection in Form, 25 May 2009 - 27 September 2009 (another example exhibited) Literature S. Feeser, Die Rhein-Pfalz, 6. June 2006, Rheinpfalz Verlag, Ludwigshafen, (illustrated in colour) F. Feldman, J. Schellmann, Claudia Defendi, Andy Warhol Prints - A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987 (FoUrth Edition, revised and expanded), Milan, 2003, P. 78/79, No II.74-83, (illustrated in colour) D. Hickey et al., Andy Warhol 'Giant' Size, New York, 2006, P. 229, (illustrated in colour) P. Rochard, Andy Warhol Me, Myself and I, Ingelheim a.R., 2006, P. 146-151, No 72, (illustrated in colour) E. Meyer-Hermann- Andy Warhol A guide to 706 Items in 2 Hours 56 Minutes. Other Voices, Other Rooms, Stedelijk Museum, Rotterdam, 2007, P. 44-45, (illustrated in colour) R. Marrone, Bruno Bischofberger, Andy Warhol Big Retrospective Painting, Zurich, 2009, P. 108, (illustrated in colour) J. Nelson, Franca Falletti et al., Mapplethorpe. Perfection in Form / La perfezione nella forma, Kempen, 2009, P. 193 (6 of 10 sheets), No 88, (illustrated in colour) Catalogue Essay ‘The more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better and emptier you feel’ ANDY WARHOL The present lot is a complete portfolio comprised of ten prints of the Electric Chair, each depicting the same image, while variations in color, exposure, and painterly gestures give a unique feature to each print. The picture used is derived from the Electric Chair paintings made by Warhol in the 1960’s, now cropped to present the chair alone in the foreground. Warhol’s disturbing images of a solitary mechanism standing in an estranged concrete space is thought to be the electric chair from Sing Sing Penitentiary in Ossining, New York. Made infamous by the executions of the Rosenbergs, the electric chair was a topical subject in New York during this period, generating much public debate. Fundamentally a murder-machine fabricated by the same industrial system of mass production that produced Campbell soup cans and Coke bottles, the electric chair discerns pictorial truths of the death industry in America and the dark side of consumer capitalist culture. Read More Artist Bio Andy Warhol American • 1928 - 1987 A seminal figure in the Pop Art movement of the early 1960s, Andy Warhol's paintings and screenprints are iconic beyond the scope of Art History, having become universal signifiers of an age. An early career in commercial illustration led to Warhol's appropriation of imagery from American popular culture and insistent concern with the superficial wonder of permanent commodification that yielded a synthesis of word and image, of art and the everyday. Warhol's obsession with creating slick, seemingly mass-produced artworks led him towards the commercial technique of screenprinting, which allowed him to produce large editions of his painted subjects. The clean, mechanical surface and perfect registration of the screenprinting process afforded Warhol a revolutionary absence of authorship that was crucial to the Pop Art manifesto. View More Works
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
