Red Disaster

Popularly known for his focus on consumer products and portraits of Hollywood stars, Warhol also acknowledged the images of death and destruction found in the media. He selected stark images of an electric chair, graphic car crashes, and police brutality during civil rights protests, which he then juxtaposed with planes of rich, brilliant color. Rather than enlarging and sensationalizing such provocative scenes, Warhol repeated a selected detail, making an image that could at the same time be appreciated for its abstract formal qualities while capturing the increasingly uneasy climate in America.

Inscription

Written in Warhol's own hand, upside down across the top of the reverse side of the painting:



1963 Andy Warhol 1963 Andy Warhol

Provenance

Andy Warhol Studio, New York; to MFA, Boston, 1986

Credit Line

Charles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund

Copyright

© 2011 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Red Disaster

Dimensions
Two panels, each 236.2 x 203.8 cm (93 x 80 1/4 in.)
Medium or Technique
Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Classification
Paintings
Accession Number
1986.161a-b
On view
Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Gallery (What is it about?) - 262

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