Pink Race Riot (Red Race Riot) (1963)
by Andy Warhol
Acrylic paint and screenprint on canvas
In this painting Warhol used three photographs of a police dog attacking an African American man. The images were taken by Charles Moore and first published in Life magazine on 17 May 1963. They documented the non-violent direct action by civil rights demonstrators seeking to remove racial segregation in Birmingham Alabama. While the term 'race riot' was commonly used at the time, it is more accurate to refer to it as a race protest. The painting presents the oppression of African American citizens and police brutality, but it brings up questions about Warhol's decision as a white artist to depict Black suffering. Was the image of violence being used to shock or to promote social commentary, attempting to bring news imagery into the rarefied space of the gallery? Some have suggested that Warhol's desire to call his 1964 exhibition in Paris 'Death in America', in which this work was exhibited, was a comment on a United States that appeared to be falling apart.
[Tate Modern]
Andy Warhol
(March – November 2020)
A new look at the extraordinary life and work of the pop art superstar
Andy Warhol was the son of immigrants who became an American icon. A shy gay man who became the hub of New York’s social scene. An artist who embraced consumerism, celebrity and the counter culture – and changed modern art in the process.
He was born in 1928 as Andrew Warhola to working-class parents from present day Slovakia. In 1949 he moved from Pittsburgh to New York. Initially working as a commercial illustrator, his skill at transforming the imagery of American culture soon found its realisation in his ground-breaking pop art.
This major retrospective is the first Warhol exhibition at Tate Modern for almost 20 years. As well as his iconic pop images of Marilyn Monroe, Coca-Cola and Campbell’s soup cans, it includes works never seen before in the UK. Twenty-five works from his Ladies and Gentlemen series – portraits of black and Latinx drag queens and trans women – are shown for the first time in 30 years.
Popularly radical and radically popular, Warhol was an artist who reimagined what art could be in an age of immense social, political and technological change.
[Tate Modern]
Pink Race Riot (Red Race Riot) (1963)
by Andy Warhol
Acrylic paint and screenprint on canvas
In this painting Warhol used three photographs of a police dog attacking an African American man. The images were taken by Charles Moore and first published in Life magazine on 17 May 1963. They documented the non-violent direct action by civil rights demonstrators seeking to remove racial segregation in Birmingham Alabama. While the term 'race riot' was commonly used at the time, it is more accurate to refer to it as a race protest. The painting presents the oppression of African American citizens and police brutality, but it brings up questions about Warhol's decision as a white artist to depict Black suffering. Was the image of violence being used to shock or to promote social commentary, attempting to bring news imagery into the rarefied space of the gallery? Some have suggested that Warhol's desire to call his 1964 exhibition in Paris 'Death in America', in which this work was exhibited, was a comment on a United States that appeared to be falling apart.
[Tate Modern]
Andy Warhol
(March – November 2020)
A new look at the extraordinary life and work of the pop art superstar
Andy Warhol was the son of immigrants who became an American icon. A shy gay man who became the hub of New York’s social scene. An artist who embraced consumerism, celebrity and the counter culture – and changed modern art in the process.
He was born in 1928 as Andrew Warhola to working-class parents from present day Slovakia. In 1949 he moved from Pittsburgh to New York. Initially working as a commercial illustrator, his skill at transforming the imagery of American culture soon found its realisation in his ground-breaking pop art.
This major retrospective is the first Warhol exhibition at Tate Modern for almost 20 years. As well as his iconic pop images of Marilyn Monroe, Coca-Cola and Campbell’s soup cans, it includes works never seen before in the UK. Twenty-five works from his Ladies and Gentlemen series – portraits of black and Latinx drag queens and trans women – are shown for the first time in 30 years.
Popularly radical and radically popular, Warhol was an artist who reimagined what art could be in an age of immense social, political and technological change.
[Tate Modern]