Electric Chairs by Andy Warhol is a portfolio of ten different electric chairs, published in 1971. The premise of taking an object that holds a very specific meaning, isolating, abstracting, and repeating it, is something that Warhol does throughout his work. As a result, by performing this process in his Electric Chair complete portfolio, the subject is no longer the electric chair and what it does; it’s about the image itself and its colors. Indeed, Electric Chairs ranks amongst Warhol’s top 10 most valuable portfolios of all time.
One of Warhol’s most famous series is the Death and Disaster collection, in which he also explored images of plane crashes, suicides, and car crashes found in the media. These works, including Electric Chairs, are among his most controversial and thought-provoking. Furthermore, they add a darker, more unsettling dimension to Warhol’s art.
Warhol first used the image of the electric chair in 1963—the same year New York State conducted its final two executions at Sing Sing Penitentiary. Because of this, Warhol’s commentary on capital punishment arrived art a particularly charged political moment.
Warhol also remained preoccupied with the overwhelming amount of news reports about violent deaths. By taking and repeating these images from the media, he could comment on the desensitization of such pressing issues. As he once said, “When you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it doesn’t really have any effect.” (Swenson, Art News, 1963).
Today, Revolver Gallery has a complete portfolio of Warhol’s Electric Chair (FS II.74-83) available for purchase. We also sell individual prints from the series.
Electric Chair as Part of Andy Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
As with many of Warhol’s works, he comments on American society with his Death and Disaster series. Initially, Warhol created the first image of the electric chair the same year that New York’s Sing Sing Penitentiary had its final two executions by electric chair. During this period in the 1960s there was a societal uproar during surrounding the death penalty. Consequently, the subject of execution became a recurring motif in Warhol’s art, reflecting both public outrage and media obsession.
Through the color variations of the Electric Chair complete portfolio, Warhol also comments on society’s ability to numb itself to repeated tragedy. Similarly, as with his other works, the repetition of an image begins to reduce its power. Warhol continued to work with this concept throughout his career.
Photo Credit: Andy Warhol (left) and Pontus Hultén (right) with the Electric Chairs behind them. Circa 1971. Photographer Unknown.
