Valerie Solanis' Nightmare - Warhol

100 x 100 cm x 4cm

Stencil spray paint on canvas

2016 

"He was a visionary in the sense that he revealed all of our guilty pleasures--and his own, of course. Empty calories; giddy sensations; pretty people; comfort food. We look down on these things, even as we crave and consume them. He was smart and he was right and he had our number."

Tennessee Williams on Andy Warhol

Pure Evil explains that a chance email from a Chinese “copy village” gave impetus to his “Nightmare Series.” The village offered, via email, a list of artists it could reproduce, including three Andy Warhol paintings. The idea of Warhol’s entire artistic output distilled right down to three small 64 x64 pixel thumbnails of Jackie Kennedy, Liz Taylor and an Electric Chair became the inspiration for these doomed and dripping celebrity portraits. Why are they crying ? “Its an illustration of the heartbreak and sadness we have all experienced in relationships in the past.”

One thing I miss is the time when America had big dreams about the future. Now it seems like nobody has big hopes for the future. We all seem to think that it’s going to be just like it is now, only worse.
—Andy Warhol, America