Search the Collection - Addison Gallery

☰ Open Filter >>

Andy Warhol , (Aug 6, 1928–Feb 22, 1987)
Printed by Kettner, Zurich

Electric Chair

1971
35 1/2 in. x 48 in. (90.17 cm x 121.92 cm)

Medium and Support: screenprint

Credit Line: gift of Peter Halley (PA 1971)

Accession Number: 2001.53

Commentary

In the early 1960s Andy Warhol turned to themes of death and disaster using grisly news photographs of accidents, suicides, and catastrophes as source material for his works. He began using the image of the electric chair in 1963, the same year that New York’s Sing Sing State Penitentiary performed its last two electric chair executions (capital punishment was banned in the United States from 1963-1997). While the artist’s repeated return to the subject over the next decade suggests a strong reaction to the political controversy surrounding the death penalty in 1960s America, the chair is given a typically deadpan presentation. According to Warhol, the replication of the image was intended to “empty” it of meaning and emotional content: “When you see a gruesome picture over and over again,” he commented, “it doesn’t really have any effect.” Yet this print series, with the chair printed once on each of ten separate sheets of paper, belies this statement. While the repetition refers to the constant reiteration of tragedy in the media and may be seen as an attempt to neutralize this disturbing image, it also emphasizes the pathos of the empty chair waiting for its next victim. The unsettling juxtaposition between the macabre subject and decorative colors further accentuates the horror of the isolated, expectant seat.

Your current search criteria is: Object is "Electric Chair".

This site facilitates access to the art and artifact collections by providing digitally searchable records for thousands objects. The information on these pages is not definitive or comprehensive. We are regularly adding artworks and updating research online. We welcome your comments.