9780935640830
Andy Warhol/Supernova Stars, Deaths, and Disasters, 1962-1964 share button
Andy Warhol
Format Paperback
Dimensions 9.80 (w) x 13.30 (h) x 0.70 (d)
Pages 112
Publisher Walker Art Center
Publication Date September 2005
ISBN 9780935640830
Book ISBN 10 0935640835
About Book
In the age of mass media, American culture has displayed an unequaled fascination with both celebrities and disasters. Andy Warhol was one of the first artists to investigate these twin obsessions, beginning in the mid-1960s, as he shifted his practice from handpainting to the mechanical photo silkscreen process. Andy Warhol Supernova brings together more than 20 examples of the artist's early silkscreen work, juxtaposing his iconic serial images of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley with his evocative and often disturbing appropriations of car crashes, electric chairs, and other "disasters," appropriated from photojournalism and made side by side. The combination provides a glimpse into a prevailing condition of American modernity--this dual fascination with fame and tragedy--that remains a key component of our national identity. Looking back at this body of masterworks, now some 40 years old, it becomes clear that if some things have changed, more have stayed the same.