Shadows (paintings)

Shadows is a series of paintings by the American artist Andy Warhol.^[1] The paintings were executed between 1978-79 and purchased as a single group by the Dia Art Foundation.^[1] The series on "long term view" at the foundation's Dia Beacon museum in Beacon, New York.^[2]

Description

This is a series of 102 silkscreened and hand-painted canvases representing distorted photographs of shadows generated in the artist's studio. They reproduce two Polaroids taken by Warhol and his assistant after folding two pieces of cardboard, lit in a way as to capture the shadows cast. All the canvases display a large black area complemented by seventeen different shades.

All the canvas are of the same size (193 × 132 cm), and they are presented side by side over a distance of approximately 450 feet (137 m). Their number varies according to the dimensions of the exhibition space. This is one of Warhol's most abstract works.^[3]