Acrylic paint and silkscreen on 6 canvases
Pop Art and its Legacy
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andy-warhol-2121" aria-label="More by Andy Warhol" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Andy Warhol</a>
Skulls
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
body
colour
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
people
photographic
repetition
skull
<p>The repeated black photographic screenprint overlaid with vivid colours was already Warhol’s trademark style of portraiture by the time he made this work. This technique was associated with glamorous subjects: Hollywood icons such as Liz Taylor or Marilyn Monroe, or the rich and famous who commissioned portraits in the early 1970s. But here a grinning skull replaces the well-groomed living sitter. In drawing this implicit comparison, Warhol may be pointing to the impermanent nature of fame, money and beauty, values that he celebrated in other works.</p><p><em>Gallery label, March 2010</em></p>
painting acrylic paint silkscreen 6 canvases
28 March 2009 – 21 September 2009
2009-09-21
28 March 2009 – 21 September 2009
2009-09-21
2009-03-28
Wolverhampton Art Gallery (Wolverhampton, UK)
http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk
2009-03-28
ARTIST ROOMS 2009: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
23 March 2010 – 30 January 2011
2011-01-30
23 March 2010 – 30 January 2011
2011-01-30
2010-03-23
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2010-03-23
Andy Warhol Part II
Collection based display
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
2011-03-27
Southampton City Art Gallery (Southampton, UK)
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts
2011-03-27
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
24 September 2011 – 26 February 2012
2012-02-26
24 September 2011 – 26 February 2012
2012-02-26
2011-09-24
De La Warr Pavilion (Bexhill on Sea, UK)
http://www.dlwp.com/
2011-09-24
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
11 April 2012 – 1 December 2012
2012-12-01
11 April 2012 – 1 December 2012
2012-12-01
2012-04-11
Graves Art Gallery (Sheffield, UK)
http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/coresite/html/graves.asp
2012-04-11
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Warhol Self Portraits
Loan-out
19 March 2016 – 12 June 2016
2016-06-12
19 March 2016 – 12 June 2016
2016-06-12
2016-03-19
Firstsite (Colchester, UK)
http://www.firstsite.uk.net/
2016-03-19
ARTIST ROOMS 2016: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
19 November 2016 – 16 April 2017
2017-04-16
19 November 2016 – 16 April 2017
2017-04-16
2016-11-19
Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.whitworth.man.ac.uk
2016-11-19
ARTIST ROOMS 2016: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
10 June 2017 – 2 September 2017
2017-09-02
10 June 2017 – 2 September 2017
2017-09-02
2017-06-10
Burgh Hall (Dunoon, UK)
2017-06-10
ARTIST ROOMS 2017: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
15 March 2025 – 29 June 2025
2025-06-29
15 March 2025 – 29 June 2025
2025-06-29
2025-03-15
MK Gallery (Milton Keynes, UK)
2025-03-15
Andy Warhol
Loan-out
21 October 2025 – 25 January 2026
2026-01-25
21 October 2025 – 25 January 2026
2026-01-25
2025-10-21
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, Spain)
2025-10-21
Warhol, Pollock and Other American Spaces
Loan-out
Skulls
support, each: 383 × 483 × 18 mm
frame: 1222 × 1024 × 50 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Skulls </i>comprises six canvases, which are displayed together in a vertical grid of three rows of two. Each panel reproduces the same photographic image of a human skull resting on a flat surface and seen from a slightly raised point of view. The black and white photograph on which <i>Skulls </i>is based was taken by Ronnie Cutrone, then one of Warhol’s assistants. Cutrone positioned the skull on a trestle table, resting it on a piece of plywood covered in white paper in front of a blank studio wall. Warhol instructed him to take several photographs while changing the position of the light source in order to cast a variety of dramatic shadows. According to Vincent Fremont, who worked with Warhol in various roles from 1969, Warhol was very interested in the shapes of these shadows and was delighted with the image used here (Freymont and Groys 2006, p. 90). The forehead and cheekbone stand out brightly while the eye sockets and other recesses are in deep shadow.</p>
<p>
<i>Skulls</i> was made in Warhol’s New York studio, known as the Factory, on unstretched canvas that had been rolled out flat on the studio floor. Although he had a large number of staff working for him, during the period when this work was made Warhol also employed an assistant named Rupert Smith to help specifically with screen-printing. Synthetic polymer paint, a fast drying alternative to oil paint, was used as the background onto which the image of the skull was screen-printed.</p>
<p>The vivacity of the red, yellow, blue, and purple colours used here is at odds with their macabre subject matter. Some art historians have linked Warhol’s repeated use of the skull as a motif in his work of this period to the artist’s near-fatal shooting in 1968. Others have suggested that Warhol’s interest in the skull as a motif stemmed from his desire to evoke the human condition (Cutrone once commented that to paint a skull ‘is to paint the portrait of everybody in the world’, quoted in Foster 2001, p.79.) However, in his book <i>The Philosophy of Andy Warhol </i>(1975), Warhol wrote about death: ‘I don’t believe in it because you’re not around to know that it’s happened. I can’t say anything about it because I’m not prepared for it.’ (Warhol 1977, p.162.) </p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Andy Warhol, <i>The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again</i>, New York 1977.<br/>Hal Foster, ‘Death in America’, in Annette Michelson (ed.), <i>October Files: Andy Warhol</i>, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2001, pp.69–91.<br/>Vincent Fremont and Boris Groys (ed.), <i>Cast a Cold Eye: The Late Work of Andy Warhol</i>, exhibition catalogue, Gagosian Gallery, New York 2006, pp.90–2.</p>
<p>Oliver Lurz<br/>February 2012</p>
</div>

Summary
2012-06-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>After he was shot and critically injured in 1968, Warhol became even more obsessed with the theme of death than he had been previously. The skull, a traditional symbol of mortality, is repeated six times, with the impenetrable darkness of the hollow eye sockets echoed in each image. The shadow cast by the skull resembles a baby’s profile, although whether this was intentional is unknown as Warhol did not take the photograph that the screenprint is based on. It seems unlikely, however, that this effective combination of both life and death would escape Warhol’s sharp gaze. In contrast to the sinister subject, the colours are vibrant. Perhaps Warhol is attempting to acknowledge that death is not something to be feared but instead, should be accepted as part of life.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
body colour emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities people photographic repetition skull