In the age of mass media, American culture has displayed an unequaled fascination with both celebrities and disasters. Andy Warhol was one of the first artists to investigate these twin obsessions, beginning in the mid-1960s, as he shifted his practice from hand-painting to the mechanical photo silkscreen process. Andy Warhol/Supernova brings together more than 50 examples of the artist's early silkscreen work, juxtaposing his iconic serial images of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley with his evocative and often disturbing appropriations of car crashes, electric chairs, and other "disasters," appropriated from photojournalism and made side by side. The combination provides a glimpse into a prevailing condition of American modernity--this dual fascination with fame and tragedy--that remains a key component of our national identity. Looking back at this body of masterworks, now some 40 years old, it becomes clear that if some things have changed, more have stayed the same.
