Warnings from Andy Warhol on resuming life during a pandemic and time of civil unrest
It’s still hazy on where we stand on the progression of COVID-19 cases, but the country is beginning to re-open. Andy Warhol’s Death and Disaster series remind us that as we begin to resume our “regular” lives we risk becoming desensitized to the whirlwind of visceral emotions engendered by the pandemic. Is it strange how I no longer feel anything when listening to or reading the news?
Warhol’s iconic silkscreen prints with highly saturated colors are part of his signature style. Some question the banality of his pop-art. To them, I say, “Oh you’re in for a ride.” The Death and Disaster series from 1963 containing around 70 pieces of work that utilize repeated imagery of sensualistic scenes of disasters and deaths. These repetitive prints of highly graphic and explicit content are taken from a journalistic context.
What’s happening to us?
Warhol takes existing photographs and manipulates them to critique celebrity culture, consumerism, and repeated imagery in the media. During the 1950s and 60s, the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement unleashed a proliferation of…
