Superb, as always exhibition at the Lightbox in Woking of the work of Andy Warhol. Never large exhibitions because of restraint on space but always skilfully put together..
This opening shot shows a snub nosed .22 revolver similar to the one used by Valerie Solanas when she tried to kill Warhol. The bullet went through his throat, lung, kidney and spleen. He was clinically dead when admitted to hospital but was revived by open heart massage. Later Solanas gave herself up to the police
A haunting self portrait of Warhol stares out at us., This references the 1968 shooting which left him physically and emotionally scarred. He wrote ” I wasn’t afraid of death before but having died once, i shouldn’t feel fear. But I am afraid. I don’t understand why”
Warhol’s Strangulation series, painted in 1978, showing his preoccupation with death following his very near brush with dying following his shooting by Solanas. The shooting left him physically and emotionally scarred. Here, the paint under the black silk scren has been slashed diagonally across Warhol’s face uderlining the violence of the image,
The painting is reflective of the times it was made , In New York , the murder rate had tripled since Warhol had moved there in 1949. But there is also something darkly comic about Strangulation with Warhol’s exaggerated upturned eyes, open mouth and the hands of the assailant cutting off at the wrist.
offtoafineart 