Electric Chair 1971

Here’s Andy Warhol's "Electric Chair", a painting haunted by gestures in yellow and orange—like sun-drenched anxiety. I imagine Warhol, with all his contradictions, silkscreening the image, then coming in with these big, almost casual swipes of color. The paint's not trying to hide anything; it’s right there on the surface, thick and thin in places. The electric chair, a heavy image, but then this gesture of lightness—a kind of wincing refusal? That slash of red, cutting across the chair—is it violence, passion, or maybe just Warhol being Warhol, pushing back against the darkness with a burst of color? It reminds me of other artists, like Francis Bacon or Gerhard Richter, who also grappled with heavy subjects through the act of painting. We’re all in conversation, trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.