1967 - Warhol, Finally

     Wow, how have we not gotten to Andy Warhol yet (I feel like I've said that four times already)?  here we have another piece of Pop Art, Big Electric Chair:

Big Electric Chair - 1967

     This image is one of a series of prints (this particular one being a silkscreen print) done by Andy Warhol depicting this same image of an electric chair with a wide variety of different color tinting effects overlaid.

     Here, we see this same, normally monochromatic image of an electric chair, relegated to the left side of the frame.  As is characteristic of this series, the original image of the electric chair is strikingly deadpan.  One would almost describe it as static, though this would be inaccurate; "static" implies an image devoid of any sort of energy.  But upon first glance at the image below, that is clearly not the case.

     Initially, one would almost think this image is a still from some sort of horror film.  The shadows and the sterility of this image definitely cultivate a truly unsettling atmosphere.  One is almost forced to imagine all the people that must have died in that chair.  This is emphasized by all the negative space in the right side of the frame.

     In terms of this specific incarnation of the image, the first thing to notice is, of course, the color.  The use of very bright, vivid colors to tint this image lends to it a very surreal quality, like something one might see on LSD.  This augmented-reality feel serves as a very poignant statement about the audacity of government-sanctioned execution and the surreal existentialism of death itself.

My Opinion

     Again, I can't say I like this image so much as I am fascinated by it.  The original photograph really is quite stirring, with its use of leading lines, dark shadows, and negative space to lend prominence to the placement of the electric chair.  So throwing some color tint on it is not really something I am impressed by.  However, what is truly interesting about this simple, seemingly arbitrary addition of color is how much can be garnered from the final image.  The words above are my interpretation of what I see and what I respond to in this image.  That is what intrigues me: how something so simple can serve as such a powerful stimuli for one's own imagination and perception.  Warhol's addition is not what makes the piece, it is what you pull from that addition.

Thanks for reading, hope to see you 'round here next time!