In 1962 Warhol began to cull images of tragic frontpage news stories. He silkscreened this image of a fatal car accident fourteen times. "I tried doing them by hand," he said, "but I find it easier to use a screen. This way, I don’t have to work on my objects at all." Warhol's distance from the work’s making parallels his diffusion of this gruesome image through repetition and deterioration. About the addition of "a blank canvas, the same background color," Warhol claimed, perhaps ironically, "The two are designed to hang together however the owner wants. . . . It just makes them bigger and mainly makes them cost more."

Gallery label from

2008.

Medium Silkscreen ink on acrylic on two canvases
Dimensions 8' 9 7/8" x 13' 8 1/8" (268.9 x 416.9 cm)
Credit Gift of Philip Johnson
Object number 234.1991.a-b
Department Painting & Sculpture

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Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

American, 1928–1987 258 works online

Two exhibitions in 1962 announced Andy Warhol’s dramatic entry into the art world. In July, at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, he exhibited his now-iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans .

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