Shadows II

Andy Warhol Shadows II is a range of artworks created by artist Andy Warhol.

In 1979, Warhol embarked on a journey to isolate images cast by shadows. With his studio assistant Ronnie Cutrone, Warhol took photographs of shadows generated by maquettes devised for the sole purpose of creating abstract forms.

Warhol used these shadow images to develop a silkscreen print series designated in five parts. There are twenty-two prints which comprise one complete Shadow series. Each 43 x 301/2 inch screenprint is unique in color and degree of diamond dust application. Each part of the Shadow series I-V was produced in small editions that were numbered and signed. Warhol also completed paintings of this subject.

When Andy Warhol first burst onto the artistic stage in the 1960s’, he did so by incorporating images that were firmly embedded in the American psyche. His bright and colorful paintings and serigraphs presented images that were commonplace — a soup can or coke bottle — but were transformed by his technique into artistic icons of popular culture. Warhol was most interested in image and not reality, although one could say that by casting these mass produced commercial images in his own unique style, Warhol was making a comment on the reality of living in a world that was dominated by images from the advertising and entertainment industries. Warhol’s prints are in essence images of images. They are at least once removed, and often several times removed, from reality. His famous prints of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, not to mention countless other celebrities, are based on photographs. As in the case with Marilyn Monroe, many of those photographs are of his subjects posing as a character, not as themselves, a subtle reminder that once someone achieves a certain celebrity status, they become further and further removed from their real selves. How many layers must one remove to finally see the real person depicted in a Warhol print?