6 photographs, gelatin silver print on paper and thread
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>
Cough
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
actions: processes and functions
cold
compassion
diseases and conditions
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
identity card
lifestyle and culture
notice
objects
people
photographic
popular culture
reading, writing, printed matter
repetition
sneezing
society
taxi cab
transport: land
<p>This work consists of six identical black and white photographic prints stitched together with thread into a grid of three rows of two. Trails of thread are left hanging at the ends of the joins of the images. The photograph depicts a close-up section of the dashboard of a taxicab taken from inside the vehicle. This section of dashboard, which is illuminated by the flash of the camera, occupies the lower half of the image, above which is the windscreen through which five white lights can be seen as indistinct spots against the dark night sky along with several others of a less intense brightness. On the dashboard, below the small rectangular fare meter, a hand-written sign reads: ‘Cough: Driver has a nice sugar-free cough drop for you… Sneeze: Kleenex is right behind you…’. To the right of this sign is the driver’s licence, which includes an identification photograph and the driver’s name, Robert A. Dinu, and number, 202761.</p>
paper unique 6 photographs gelatin silver print thread
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
2011-03-27
John Hansard Gallery (Southampton, UK)
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~hansard/
2011-03-27
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
2 June 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2 June 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-06-02
Ferens Art Gallery (Hull, UK)
http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/museumcollections
2012-06-02
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Warhol
Loan-out
8 February 2013 – 28 April 2013
2013-04-28
8 February 2013 – 28 April 2013
2013-04-28
2013-02-08
The MAC: Metropolitan Arts Centre (Belfast, UK)
2013-02-08
ARTIST ROOMS 2013: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
12 December 2020 – 27 March 2022
2022-03-27
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
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
Cough
object: 805 × 695 mm
frame: 1079 × 955 × 25 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>This work consists of six identical black and white photographic prints stitched together with thread into a grid of three rows of two. Trails of thread are left hanging at the ends of the joins of the images. The photograph depicts a close-up section of the dashboard of a taxicab taken from inside the vehicle. This section of dashboard, which is illuminated by the flash of the camera, occupies the lower half of the image, above which is the windscreen through which five white lights can be seen as indistinct spots against the dark night sky along with several others of a less intense brightness. On the dashboard, below the small rectangular fare meter, a hand-written sign reads: ‘Cough: Driver has a nice sugar-free cough drop for you… Sneeze: Kleenex is right behind you…’. To the right of this sign is the driver’s licence, which includes an identification photograph and the driver’s name, Robert A. Dinu, and number, 202761.</p>
<p>Between 1982 and 1987 Andy Warhol made over five hundred unique stitched photograph works each comprising several prints of the same image arranged into a grid. The images used as the basis for the stitched photographs were all taken by Warhol, who took photographs almost every day from 1976 onwards using several 35 mm cameras. When he began making the stitched photograph works, Warhol selected images from among the thousands he had amassed. The stitched photograph works feature a broad array of subjects including pictures of celebrities, objects, and monuments. <i>Cough</i> is one of a number of these works featuring signs, which range from the handwritten, such as <i>I Am Blind</i> 1986 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-i-am-blind-ar00289" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00289</span></a>), to the more formal or commercial, such as <i>Sunday Brunch</i> 1986 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-sunday-brunch-ar00295" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AR00295</span></a>).</p>
<p>The apparent focus of this work according to its title is the ‘Cough’ sign which indicates the driver’s concern for health and maintaining a sanitary environment. It is well documented that Warhol suffered from hypochondria and so it is likely that he would have empathised with and appreciated the driver’s attempt to keep his car free from germs. Warhol experienced periods of illness as a child that significantly affected his later health:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>I had had three nervous breakdowns when I was a child, spaced a year apart. One when I was eight, one at nine, and one at ten. The attacks – St Vitus’ Dance – always started on the first day of summer vacation. I don’t know what this meant. I would spend all summer listening to the radio and lying in bed.</blockquote>
<blockquote>(Warhol 1977, p.21.)</blockquote>
<p>Throughout his adult life the artist frequently expressed concern about his skin and body, or about the risk of infection. Occasionally these fears manifested themselves in his art. For instance, the 1961 painting <i>Where Is Your Rupture?</i>, which was based on a plastic surgeon’s advertisement, depicts a basic outline of the female body from neck to hips, penetrated by several numbered arrows. Warhol’s hypochondria also seems to underpin the series of <i>Tunafish Disaster</i> paintings made in 1963, each of which was based on a page from <i>Newsweek</i> detailing the story of two housewives from a Detroit suburb who were killed by botulism contracted from a can of contaminated tuna.</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/>Brian Dillon, ‘Andy Warhol’s Magic Disease’, in <i>Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives</i>, New York 2010, pp.236–66.</p>
<p>Glyn Davis<br/>University of Edinburgh<br/>June 2013</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS</i>.</p>
</div>

Summary
2014-06-13T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Following the gift of a camera in 1976, Warhol began to photographically document every aspect of his life from the people he met to graffiti on the streets. In 1986 he developed some of these images into what became known as his stitched photographs. Created by sewing several identical images together, these works are indebted to his early screenprints in their use of repetition and grid formation. This work features a photograph of handwritten signs in a New York taxi, informing the passengers, among other things, that if they had a cough, the driver had cough drops available. By repeating this image Warhol is emphasising the broader significance of the strange and unexpected things we encounter on a daily basis.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: processes and functions cold compassion diseases and conditions emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities identity card lifestyle and culture notice objects people photographic popular culture reading, writing, printed matter repetition sneezing society taxi cab transport: land