Birmingham Race Riot

Andy Warhol 1928 - 1987

Summary

From 'Ten Works by Ten Painters', a portfolio of 10 screenprints in an edition of 500. This screenprint on Mohawk paper was published by the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut. Printed by Sirocco Sceen Prints, New Haven, Connecticut. Designed by Ives-Stillman. The Civil Rights demonstrations which took place in Birmingham, Alabama in the southern USA in 1963 were a continuation of the protest struggle which had begun with direct action against the policy of exclusion on the bus services in Birmingham back in 1961. A series of non-violent marches inspired by Martin Luther King were routinely and violently broken up with the use of police dogs and firehoses. The marches were usually over within minutes as a result but they provided the media with graphic images of oppression. Warhol used a press photograph by Charles Moore reproduced in the issue of Life magazine dated 17 May 1963 as the basis for his painting, Red Race Riot of 1963 and subsequently for this monochrome print.

Display Label

Birmingham Race Riot 1964 This print was issued alongside nine others, in a set for art collectors entitled Ten Works by Ten Painters. The other painters’ images were of inoffensive objects, such as Roy Lichtenstein’s sandwich and soda, or of abstract designs, such as Ellsworth Kelly’s cropped red oval on blue. How does Warhol’s choice of subject fit in with the set? Does it undermine the others’ seriousness with its re-use of this harrowing press photograph? Incidentally, the original photograph is from a 1963 Life magazine photo essay on the Alabama race riots by Charles Moore, who later sued Warhol for unauthorised use of his image.