Piss Paintings

Do you know what this is?

It's a canvas painted with metallic paint. And then peed on. By Andy Wahol.

Personally, I think it's beautiful. It's from his series of 'oxidation' paintings, which were made at a time when it was pretty well agreed that Warhol had lost his edge. And they're probably the most abstract of his work; they can only be called 'POP' art because they were made by him. But otherwise, they're an anomaly.

And in the same era, when he was making some pretty terrible portraits using his traditional silkscreen technique - experimenting a little but generally putting out crappy work... well, in this era he made the oxidation paintings and used them for Basquiat's portrait.

In my opinion, the Basquiat portrait(s) are a highlight of Andy Warhol's career - and ironically (since they are flat-painted and then destroyed by urine) are the most aesthetically pleasing.

What do you think?

Jean-Michel Basquiat died in 1988 at the age of 27.

The Gagosian Gallery, current US gallerists of the Warhol work, had an excellent show called 'Andy Warhol Piss + Sex Paintings and Drawings' in 2002.

That show can be found here:
2002 Gagosian Show Information
And of course, they published an excellent catalogue:
Andy Warhol Piss + Sex Catalogue
But of course it's out of print, so look here:
Available Warhol Piss + Sex Books