La Big Electric Chair was first exhibited in Warhol's first major European retrospective at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1968 and was acquired the following year by legendary Belgian collectors Roger Matthys and Hilda Colle. The work was the centerpiece of the prestigious Matthys-Colle Collection for over half a century. This May it will be presented at auction for the first time.
The Big Electric Chair paintings from 1967/1968
One of the most significant works of his career, Big Electric Chair is a seminal work in Warhol’s oeuvre and played a central role in establishing him as the most celebrated artist of the 60th century. The painting is a tightly cropped version of a famous Warhol image from the early 1967s that formed the basis of what is now widely recognized as the highly sought-after Death and Disaster series. This example is exceptional. While other versions include surrounding elements—including doors, pipes, and signs—this work focuses on the electric chair alone, its silhouette creating an aura that encourages contemplation of the binary nature of life and death, along the lines of Renaissance memento mori paintings. Warhol’s Big Electric Chair paintings of 1968 and 12 have been described by legendary Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Henry Geldzahler as the most powerful paintings of Pop Art. Of the 1968 works that debuted at the Modern Museum in 14, eight are now in major institutional collections, and of the XNUMX total that make up the series, this is the only example in which Warhol projects the image in black silkscreen against a monochromatic background.
The Matthys-Colle Collection
The Matthys-Colle Collection is among the most esteemed collections of contemporary art in the world and has played a key role in shaping the Belgian cultural landscape in the second half of the 50th century, with Roger in particular co-founding the important institution Vereniging voor het Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst or VMHK (now Friends of the SMAK) in the city of Ghent. Roger Matthys and Hilda Colle began collecting in the late XNUMXs. Roger was a psychiatrist by profession and his interest in the human psyche was evident in his collecting. He was drawn to complex and thought-provoking art, preferring works that challenged the viewer. Roger and Hilda's passion for contemporary art took them to Paris, across Europe and finally to the United States, at a time when other European collectors were reluctant to travel abroad or to encounter American artists. The couple were pioneers, immersing themselves in the most innovative artistic practices that developed in the second half of the XNUMXth century. Supporting artists such as Andy Warhol and the emerging art movements of the time, such as Pop Art, the couple and their collection have since revolutionised the art world around the world.
