Screenprint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
Electric Chairs
<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>
Purchased 1982
birth to death
crime and punishment
death
death penalty
electric chair
emotions, concepts and ideas
execution
formal qualities
miscellaneous
objects
photographic
photographic negative
social comment
society
<p>Warhol began making silkscreens of an empty electric chair in 1963, a time when the ethics of capital punishment were being fervently debated in America. Designed to make killing as efficient and impersonal as possible, the electric chair unites Warhol’s fascination with death and with mechanised production. He presents these bleak images in a deadpan manner, without social commentary or moral consolation. The emotional distance is heightened by his audacious use of colour, which is at odds with his morbid subject matter.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2016</em></p>
paper print screenprint
12 May 2000 – 3 March 2002
2002-03-03
12 May 2000 – 3 March 2002
2002-03-03
2000-05-12
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2000-05-12
Andy Warhol: Celebrity and Death
Collection based display
5 October 2006 – 7 January 2007
2007-01-07
5 October 2006 – 7 January 2007
2007-01-07
2006-10-05
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (Brighton, UK)
http://www.brighton.virtualmuseum.info
2006-10-05
Empire
Loan-out
12 December 2020 – 27 March 2022
2022-03-27
12 December 2020 – 13 June 2021
2021-06-13
2020-12-12
Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany)
17 July 2021 – 24 October 2021
2021-10-24
2021-07-17
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
3 December 2021 – 27 March 2022
2022-03-27
2021-12-03
Aspen Art Museum (Aspen, USA)
http://www.aspenartmuseum.org
2020-12-12
Warhol 2020
Loan-out
[no title]
image: 900 × 1216 mm
frame: 912 × 1230 × 30 mm
Purchased 1982
<div class="text">
<p>Warhol began making silkscreens of an empty electric chair in 1963, a time when the ethics of capital punishment were being fervently debated in America. Designed to make killing as efficient and impersonal as possible, the electric chair unites Warhol’s fascination with death and with mechanised production. He presents these bleak images in a deadpan manner, without social commentary or moral consolation. The emotional distance is heightened by his audacious use of colour, which is at odds with his morbid subject matter.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-02-10T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-no-title-p07732" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07732</span></a> [from] <b>Electric Chair</b> 1971 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-no-title-p07725" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07725</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-no-title-p07734" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07734</span></a>; complete]
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<br/>Ten screenprints each approx. 35 3/8 × 47 3/4 (900 × 1216) on Velin Arches paper, printed by Silkprint Kettner, Zurich, published by Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich in an edition of 250
<br/>Each inscribed ‘Andy Warhol 71’ on the back and numbered on the back with a stamp
<br/>Purchased at Sotheby's, Los Angeles (Grant-in-Aid) 1982
<br/><i>Repr</i>: Hermann Wünsche, Andy Warhol, Das Graphische Werk 1962–1980, Bonn 1981, pls.59–68 (col.)
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<br/>The image used for this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portfolio" title="Glossary definition for 'Portfolio'"><span>portfolio</span></a> of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> was derived from the ‘Electric Chair’ <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> Warhol made in 1967. It is also closely related to the ‘Lavender Disaster’ painting of 1964 (repr. Warhol, exhibition catalogue Tate Gallery, February–March 1971, p.47). According to the publisher, in a conversation with the compiler on 13 September 1985, he asked Warhol to do a publication and discussed with him which subject might be suitable. The publisher wanted something which would relate to Warhol's principal earlier work but cannot remember whether it was he or Warhol who proposed the eventual subject. It was intended to make a print of an image which Warhol had already made famous.
<br/>
<br/>The actual image for the prints was taken from the earlier paintings the source for which was a newspaper <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a>. According to Calvin Tomkins the particular eletric chair was at Sing-Sing prison (‘Raggedy Andy’ in Andy Warhol, exhibition catalogue, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, October–November 1970, p.13). The ‘Electric Chair’ paintings were part of a series on ‘Death and Disaster’. According to Warhol it was Henry Geldzahler who gave him the idea to start the series. ‘We were having lunch one day in the summer [of 1962]... and he laid the Daily News out on the table. The headline was “129 DIE IN JET”. And that's what started me on the death series - the car crashes, the Disasters, the Electric Chairs ...’ (quoted in Carter Ratcliffe, Andy Warhol, New York, 1983, p.37). According to Rainer Crone (Andy Warhol, London, 1970, p.29) the ‘Electric Chair’ paintings are political statements, symbols of the misuse of government sovereignty, an open confession of a deficiency in cultural development. He claims that the paintings were made to insist on the message that the law of capital punishment be changed. There is little evidence from Warhol to substantiate such a specific claim.
<br/>
<br/>Each print in the portfolio depicts the same basic image of an empty chair but they vary in colour. According to the publisher there is no particular order to the prints. He stated that Warhol made proofs with many different colours and together with the publisher chose those he liked best. The publisher has one hundred or more different proofs. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> comprises ten prints the majority of which are printed in two colours. The image of the chair in eight of them is less distinct as though fading away or charged with electricity.
<br/>
<br/>Warhol made one print with very <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gestural" title="Glossary definition for 'Gestural'"><span>gestural</span></a> marks. According to the publisher the artist wanted to make the whole edition in this manner but the publisher dissuaded him because he felt it ran contrary to the spirit of the paintings from which they were derived. The artist persuaded the publisher to retain one image in this manner for the editioned set. Apart from the particular character of this print the portfolio differs from the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/screenprint" title="Glossary definition for 'Screenprint'"><span>screenprinted</span></a> paintings in that the ground colour of the paintings was applied by hand with a roller, whereas each colour in the printed version required a separate screen.
<br/>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1986
<br/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
birth to death crime and punishment death death penalty electric chair emotions, concepts and ideas execution formal qualities miscellaneous objects photographic photographic negative social comment society