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Monochromatic dusty purple image of a blurred electric chair set off center to the left.
  • Monochromatic dusty purple image of a blurred electric chair set off center to the left.

Andy Warhol

Electric Chair
Now On View

Maker

Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987
b. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Silkprint Kettner, printer

Title

Electric Chair

Year

1971

Medium

  • Color screenprint on paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Color screenprint on paper

Materials

color screen print

Supports

  • White wove Velin paper

Dimensions

Plate: 89.5 x 121.3 cm (35 1/4 x 47 3/4 inches)

Identification

State

250

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum purchase with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts

Object Number

76.004.2

Type

  • Prints

Exhibition History

Process Work
Intersections of Photography and Print ca. 1825 to Today
Feb 01, 2025 – Jul 20, 2025

Label copy

Is it true that the more we see horrifying images on screens and in print, the more desensitized we become? In this work, Andy Warhol asks this question by borrowing an image of an electric chair from a mass-produced newspaper. A symbol of state-sanctioned violence and capital punishment, the electric chair is a jarring image, but it is also just that—an image. 

What power does an image hold when it is replicated, reproduced, and shared widely? Blown up to a much larger scale than it would have appeared originally and reproduced in shades of brown and pink, Electric Chair refuses to be ignored. 

Carl Ostendarp
Pulled Up
Feb 13, 2009 – Aug 23, 2009
A Special Genius
Contemporary American Graphics from the Museum's Collection
Sep 01, 1976 – Oct 03, 1976

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987
b. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Silkprint Kettner, printer
Bruno Bischofberger, publisher
Electric Chair, 1971
Color screenprint on paper
Plate: 89.5 x 121.3 cm (35 1/4 x 47 3/4 inches)
Museum purchase with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts 76.004.2

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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