The Skateroom, in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, presents a limited edition of 100 featuring Andy Warhol’s Skulls series.
Created between 1976 and 1977 at Warhol’s New York studio, known as the Factory, Skulls presents the image of a human skull resting on a flat surface. The series is based on a black and white photograph originally taken by one of Warhol’s assistants. Following Warhol’s instructions, his assistant took photographs while casting a variety of dramatic shadows by manipulating the light source’s position.
As a result, the forehead and cheekbone stand out brightly while the eye sockets and other recesses create a deep void that confronts its audience. The liveliness of the colors used is directly placed in opposition with the intensity of the subject matter.
The Skulls series, like most of Andy Warhol’s body of work, is ambiguous in its interpretation. Some art historians have linked the artworks to Warhol’s nearly lethal shooting in 1968, implying an obsessive awareness of death following the event. Yet, in his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975), Andy Warhol himself famously claimed, “I don’t believe in it because you’re not around to know that it’s happened. I can’t say anything about it because I’m not prepared for it.”