Andy Warhol created Love 310 in 1983 as part of his his Love series. The series comprises three screenprints that capture the energy of intimate love through various techniques. Love 310 uses doubled lines of contrasting colors, purple and yellow. A bold graphic line of deep purple is combined with a softer crayon or pencil line of red and yellow, all accented by a shadow of color. This attention to detail gives depth to the feminine figure in the background photograph, presenting her standing out from the male figure posing with her, as if she is somehow in the foreground. Warhol highlights the sensuality of the photo through the attention to the figure leaning forward, drawing attention and detail to her chest that is not as evident in the overexposed background. While Love 310 gives more attention to the female participant, the other two screenprints, Love 311 and 312, emphasize both figures in the foreground.
Each screen print in Warhol’s Love series depicts a nude couple embracing one another in a different position. The sequence of images seemingly implies a narrative, as if each image represents a different movement leading up to sexual intercourse. While the images are characterized by passion, lust and sexuality, they are not as much pornographic as they are romantic. There are explicit sexual acts depicted nor is an emphasis of naked sexual parts, as there is in Warhol’s 1978 Sex Parts series, which includes prints focalizing on sexual acts and male sex organs. His decision to name this collection of prints his “Love“ series, and his depiction of the couple’s full bodies rather than their body parts, also implies deeper meaning beyond sexual intercourse
While screenprints like Love 310 may make it seem like Warhol was very interested in sexuality and physical intimacy, the opposite is (ostensibly) true. Famously, Warhol declared himself as a virgin (though this wasn’t actually true). He also once said that sex is much more exciting “on the screen” than in real life.
Though he wasn’t very interested in the act, in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), Warhol offers some love advice for others. One tip is “people should fall in love with their eyes closed. Just close your eyes. Don’t look”. His instruction suggests that people shouldn’t preemptively engineer who and how they love; instead, they should approach the process instinctively and with a healthy dose of abandon. “The best love is not-to-think-about-it love,” he continued.
Warhol alluded to his own penchant for overthinking things when he extended this theory beyond love to sex. He praises the people who “can have sex and really let their minds go blank” over those who become preoccupied with distracting questions like: “Can this really be me? Am I really doing this?…What would Mom say?”
According to the artist, the former group was “better off.” But he didn’t leave the latter set in the dust. “The other type has to find something else to relax with and get lost in,” he offered as advice.
