Andy Warhol’s Cologne Cathedral Complete Portfolio features images of the cathedral based on a photograph by Christopher Makos. Makos was a close collaborator with Warhol, and it is said that he introduced Warhol to the art of Jean-Michael Basquiat and Keith Haring, along with introducing Warhol to his first camera.
The Roman Catholic Church displayed in Makos and Warhol’s work is located in Cologne, Germany and is rumored to hold the remains of the Three Kings (also known as the Three Wise Men), who are said to have brought gold, frankincense and myrrh as gifts to Christ. The cathedral boasts the title of the largest Gothic Church in Northern Europe and has the largest facade of any church in the world. Warhol’s interest in the structure stems both from his pious background and fascination with the grandeur exhibited in the architecture.
The Cologne Cathedral suite uses both color and line work to obscure and abstract the original image, making it almost unrecognizable as the cathedral and giving it an originality that is not typically seen in artistic renditions of Gothic architecture. The Cologne Cathedral complete portfolio is comprised of four screenprints with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board, including FS II. 361-364.
Photo credit: Warhol Contact Sheets of Cologne Cathedral photographed by Christopher Makos, 1980. Courtesy of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University.
