Lamentation 388 is one of three screenprints in Martha Graham series. The print features dancer Martha Graham, a great influence to modern dance as it is know today. She was the first dancer to perform at the White House and founded New York’s Martha Graham Dance Company. She once said, “I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable” (New York Times, 1985).
Lamentation 388 by Andy Warhol as Part of his Larger Body of Work
In this series, Warhol captures the beauty of a different art form, dance, and replicates its splendor in a still two dimensional image. The source image for the series was taken by American photographer Barbara Morgan, who was best known for her depictions of modern dancers. To commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Center of Contemporary Dance in New York, Warhol created this series in appreciation of her contribution to the performing arts discipline. Warhol’s portfolio compliments Graham by showing a variation of her abilities not just as a dancer, but as someone who communicates profound emotion through movement and physical expression.
Photo by: Peggy Lyman Hanes in Martha Graham’s ‘Lamentation’ in 1930. Photograph by Martha Swope. Copyright of the Martha Graham Resources, a division of The Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, www.marthagraham.org.
