Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level D , Case DR, Shelf 15

Untitled. from the suite 'Ten Works by Ten Painters'

Print
1964 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Warhol took his imagery from popular media: magazines, television, cinema, advertising, packaging and so on. His choice sometimes appeared shocking, as in his electric chair series or the car crashes, but his apparently deadpan treatment of them often implies a radical critique of social mores. Here, the bravery of the Civil Rights Activists of the early 1960s is immortalised through Warhol's simple re-iteration of some of the most harrowing press photographs of police 'intervention'.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleUntitled. from the suite 'Ten Works by Ten Painters'
Materials and techniques
printer's ink, paper, screenprint
Brief description
Andy Warhol: screenprint from portfolio 'Ten Works by Ten Painters' published by Wadsworth Atheneum, 1964.
Physical description
Modified back and white photographic image of police with dogs, and young black people. From press photographs of the Civil Rights Race Riots in Birmingham Alabama, 1964
Dimensions
  • Sheet height: 50.9cm
  • Sheet width: 61cm
Printed to margins
Style
Production typeLimited edition
Copy number
382/500
Marks and inscriptions
(sheet blind stamped with printer's chop mark lower right corner.)
Credit line
Given by Kasmin Ltd.
Object history
Suite originally housed in a cream cloth-covered portfolio box with cream and white paper lining. On front X / + / X in blue and white and in blue on spine ‘TEN WORKS BY TEN PAINTERS THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM’ Container is unnumbered and housed elsewhere, currently (2011) at the back of '1st Mezz' in the National Art Library. Inside the container still remains four pages (description and transcript below):
Title-page: vertically in black ‘X / + [cut out] / X / [and horizontally through the same +] TEN WORKS [+] TEN PAINTERS / THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM’
Title-page verso of title-page: ‘Copyright 1964, The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut 67/500 [edition number in pen] / Designed and Produced by Ives-Sillman, New Haven, Connecticut’
Page 2: in caps a list of names: ‘GEORGE ORTMAN / FRANK STELLA / ELLSWORTH KELLY / ROBERT MOTHERWELL / ANDY WARHOL / STUART DAVIS / ROY LICHTENSTEIN / LARRY POONS / ROBERT INDIANA / AD REINHARDT’
Page 3: ‘This portfolio was commissioned and printed in an attempt to extend / as much of the visual impact as pssible of ten artists to paper and / to make the prints available to collectors who might not otherwise / have such a vivid slice of the artist. / The dry surface of screening seemed to be most apt to translate the / effect of their painting, both the flatness which is the unifying bond / between the ten, and the insistence of paint on the surface of canvas / so like the visible heft of ink on paper here. / Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr. Curator of Paintings’ [followed by a list of sponsors]
Dims. of container: 65 x 53.5 x 2.5cm.
Condition note: Spillages and staining all over container especially front cover.
Production
The printing was done by Sirocco under supervision of Ives-Sillman.
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
Warhol took his imagery from popular media: magazines, television, cinema, advertising, packaging and so on. His choice sometimes appeared shocking, as in his electric chair series or the car crashes, but his apparently deadpan treatment of them often implies a radical critique of social mores. Here, the bravery of the Civil Rights Activists of the early 1960s is immortalised through Warhol's simple re-iteration of some of the most harrowing press photographs of police 'intervention'.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • The Museum of Modern Art: American Prints 1960-1985 In the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. p. 402. NJ., 1986.
  • Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1969
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.127-1969

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Record createdJanuary 4, 2008
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