Shadows — Andy Warhol

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Shadows (1977–78) by Andy Warhol, a monumental artwork of 102 large format, silkscreened panels. (February 26 — October 2, 2016)

Andy Warhol is one of the most important Pop Art artists, he developed his own iconography from common features of everyday life, advertising, and comics, using his favourite process; screenprinting. During this process, photographic images can be transferred directly onto canvas or paper multiple times, allowing works of art to be created in large quantities easily and inexpensively.

In 1978, Warhol embarked upon the production of a monumental body of work titled Shadows with the assistance of his entourage at the Factory. These works are entitled ‘Shadows’ as they are all based around a photo of a shadow taken in his office.

This series was conceived as one painting in multiple parts, the final number of canvases is determined by the dimensions of an exhibition space. For the first exhibition, in 1979 in Soho, New York, only 83 on the 102 canvases were installed. 

Warhol and his team coated the canvases with acrylic paint with bright and cheerful colour tones (like the translucent violet and the aqua green which are characteristic of his larger body of work). Then, the shadow image was screenprinted on top, primarily in black silkscreen ink — only a couple were made in silver.

Each Shadow corresponds to a form that reveals, with precision and self-awareness, its space, directing the viewer’s gaze to light, the central subject of the series.
In focusing on the shadow to devise light—that is to say, sparks of colour—Warhol returns to the quintessential problem of art: perception.