Electric Chair

Andy Warhol, generally considered the father of American Pop Art, produced his Death and Disaster screen paintings from 1962 to 1967. His canonical images in the series include car accidents, suicides, a mushroom cloud, civil rights riots, and Jackie Kennedy in Dallas (three examples of which are in the Brooks Collection). Among the most haunting of the series, however, are the electric chairs, which he completed as silk screens on both canvas and paper.

Critics disagree as to whether Warhol’s art is noncommittal or political. Certainly capital punishment was one of the most hotly debated issues in the sixties. After his death, it was discovered that he collected images from World Wide Photo, a commercial photo archive.1 Exactly when he bought the images remains unclear, but all of the electric chair paintings and prints are based on a photograph that is labeled on the back: “Sing Sing’s Death Chamber. January 13, 1953.” The text goes on to note that this is the chair in which Julius and Ethel Rosenberg will be executed. This information makes it difficult to view the electric chairs as anything but a condemnation of governmental power.

In 1971, Warhol produced a portfolio of ten screen prints on paper. Much of the original photograph is cropped so that the door with the ominous Silence sign over it does not appear. Nonetheless, the empty room with the chair, restraining straps dramatically visible, remains a disturbing image. Although the vacant chair grimly awaits its next occupant, the overall effect of the isolated chair, repeated in Warhol’s signature palette of pop colors, is also highly decorative. It is this dramatic contrast between engaging visual form and controversial subject matter that fuels the debates concerning his intentions.