Red_Elvis

Red Elvis Andy Warhol’s, Red Elvis (1962) uses a silkscreen process to replicate a commercial photograph of Elvis Presley onto a large painted canvas. I will provide an analysis of the unique image; as well as the method in which it was produced. I will also provide a brief explanation as to how I related and interpreted my image from the Red Elvis image. Red Elvis is a large, photo-silkscreen image that is emblazed by 36 exact duplicates of a headshot of the musician Elvis Presley. The headshots are in solid black ink on a solid red background, and it measures 175cm by 132 cm. (Rosenblum, 598, 1989). The contrast between the black and the red delivers a visual shock for what is in all essences an uninteresting photograph of Elvis Presley. This “shock of the new” (Collacello, 28) was evidently what Warhol was trying to accomplish. Due to the process in which the photo is transferred over to a silkscreen, much of the photo’s detail is lost, giving the final image an artificial, almost abstract, appearance on the canvas. We know that the image is of Elvis Presley, but if the image was of someone elvis, red, image, silkscreen, photograph, photo, warhol, through, process, presley, over, large, ink, canvas, black, artwork, areas, screen, light, grid, effect, darker, commercial, stardom, solid, slightly, shock, provide, placed, passed, pass, painted, original, onto