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Thursday, January 26, 2017

"Flash-November 22, 1963, 1968," by Andy Warhol (Feldman/Schellmann: II.35)


Flash-November 22, 1963, 1968; Screenprint on wove paper, an unsigned proof apart from the signed edition of 200; Housed in original folder with a page of Teletype text; Published by Racolin Press, Inc., Briarcliff Manor, New York; Printed by Aetna Silkscreen Products, Inc., New York; Size - Sheet 21" x 21"; Catalog Raisonne: Feldman/Schellmann: II.35; Unframed.

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!    

John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963 shocked the nation and sent a wave of mourning across the country. Andy Warhol, who was just 35 years old, stated:

"I heard the news over the radio when I was alone painting in my studio. I don’t think I missed a stroke. I wanted to know what was going on out there, but that was the extent of my reaction. …  I’d been thrilled having Kennedy as president; he was handsome, young, smart–but it didn’t bother me that much that he was dead. What bothered me was the way the television and radio were programming everybody to feel so sad. It seemed like no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t get away from the thing…. John Quinn, the playwright … was moaning over and over, “But Jackie was the most glamorous First Lady we’ll every get.”"

Warhol immediately launched into a series of Jackie Kennedy portraits entitled “16 Jackies” that, in his typical fashion, expressed as he stated “detachment from emotions," an attitude he regarded as characteristic of the 1960s in general. Warhol often used tragic or horrific events that appeared in the media as source material for artwork. For Warhol, “the more you look at exactly the same thing, the more the meaning goes away and the better and emptier you feel.”

Andy Warhol would become obsessed, just like most of the world of the early 1960's, with the Kennedy assassination; and especially the media’s reporting and it's representation. The event and those involved, became the subject of creative output for Warhol throughout the 1960s. In 1966 Warhol created three prints focusing on Jacqueline Kennedy. The source of the images were either taken from the Dealey Plaza event or from JFK’s funeral service.

Two years later, Warhol returned to the same subject, but now focusing on the assassination itself. He created “Flash-November 23, 1963”, a portfolio of eleven individual prints. For source material, Warhol turned to the primary media of the time: newspaper articles, official government photographs, and portraits of President Kennedy and the First Lady. The 1968 portfolio was named for "News Flash," Teletype machine texts that were used to report the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in real time. The print portfolio box cover included an image of the November 22, 1963, New York World-Telegram front page, with the headline "President Shot Dead." Serigraphed actual Teletype texts were used as print folders for each individual work.


Page one of the original folder with Teletype text.

Andy Warhol used eleven different images, each created in bright bold colors to illustrate the horrific event. Some of the images are a smiling John F. Kennedy as he campaigns for the presidency, while another is a collage of Kennedy’s campaign images combined with that of a director’s clapboard. One print is the official Seal of the President of the United States, while another is the rifle advertisement for the suspected murder weapon. There is an image of the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald created in bright neon pink, an image of the Texas School Book Depository with an arrow pointing to a window on the sixth floor, and another with a centered image of a smiling Jackie wearing her iconic pillbox hat. In the eleven prints of "Flash-November 23, 1963," Andy Warhol created an extremely poignant, yet powerful glimpse into an American event that had been both covered extensively and exploited by the media. The underlying reality was that the hope of America for a better tomorrow was shattered in a flash; and the dream replaced by one of the saddest events of the twentieth century.


Page two of the original folder with Teletype text.

This work is composed of several images of a smiling John F. Kennedy, combined with text banners of Kennedy for President. The choice of the single red color that is screened both in mat and high gloss, significantly enhances the power of the images. A really spectacular work, from one of the greatest series of prints ever created by Andy Warhol!

The Teletype text printed on two pages of the print folders is below (Note: Misspelled words in the original text were not corrected nor was the original spacing):

-7-

   THE PRESIDENT WAS KILLED BY A BULLET THROUGH THE BRAIN FIRED AS HE RODE IN A MOTORCADE THROUGH DOWNTOWN DALLAS. TEXAS GOVERNOR JOHN B CONNALLY, J4., RIDING IN THE SAME CAR, WAS SHOT IN THE CHEST, RIBS AND ARM. HIS CONDITION WAS DESCRIBED AS XXX SERIOUS, BUT NOT CRITICAL.

   VICE PRESIDENT LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, RIDING THREE CARS BACK, WAS UNINJURED. MR. JOHNSON WAS SWORN IN AS THE 36TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 99 MINUTES AFTER XXXX MR. KENNEDY WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD AT 1:00 P.M. (CST). MR. JOHNSON IS 55 YEARS OLD; MR. KENNEDY WAS 46. 

   SHORTLY AFTER 2 P.M. DALLAS POLICE ANNOUNCED THEY HAD ARRESTED A "HOT SUSPECT " IN THE ASSASSINATION. HE WAS IDENTIFIED A LEE HARVEY OSWALD, 24, WHO IS EMPLOYED AS THE TEXAS BOOK DEPOSITORY, ADJACENT TO THE MURDER SCENE. OWALD, WHO FORMERLY LIVED IN THE SOVIET UNIOJ, WAS ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SALYING OF J. B. TIPPIT, A X DALLAS PATROLMAN, SHORTLY AFTER PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS KILLED.

   THE PRESIDENT WAS STRUCK DOWN AS HE RODE IN AN OPEN CAR XXXX ON HIS WAY TO THE DALLAS TRADE MART, WHERE HE WAS TO DELIVER A SPEECH TO A GROUP OF THE CITY'S LEADING CITIZENS. HE HAD ARRIVED IN DALLAS FROM FORT WORTH AT 11:37 A.M. (CST) TODAY.

-8-

   THE THREE SHOTS RANG OUT IN QUICK SUCCESSION AT 12:20 P.M.(CST). JUST AS THE PRESIDENT'S CAR WAS APPROACHING A TRIPLE OVERPASS. MR. KENNEDY, WHO WAS WAVING AT THE THINNED OUT CROWDS, CLUTCHED AT HIS THROAT AND TOPPLED OVER ONTO THE X LAP OF HIS WIFE, WHO JUMPED UP AND SHOUTED. "OH, NO!" SECRET SERVICE AGENT CLINT HILL LEAPED ONTO THE BACK OF THE PRESIDENT'S CAR AND ORDERED THE DRIVER TO SPEED AHEAD TO PARKLAND HOSPITAL, THREE AND HALF MILES DOWN THE ROAD.

   ARRIVING AT THE HOSPITAL, MR. KENNEDY AND GOV. CONNALLY, WHO WAS ALSO BEING HELD BY HIS WIFE, WERE RUSED INTO EMERGENCY ROOMS. SOON AFTER THEIR ARRIVAL, WOT PRIESTS WERE SUMMONED TO PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S SIDE. ON LEAVING THE EMERGENCY ROOM, THE PRIESTX REPORTED THAT THE PRESIDENT HAD DIED OF HIS WOUNDS. WHITE HOUSE AIDES, AT FIRST UNCERTAIN, CONFIRMED THE REPORT AT 1:33 P.M. (CST). 
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   WASHINGTON, NOV. 22 -- FOLLOWING IS THE TEXT OF A STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT LLYNDON BAINES JOHNSON ON ARRIVAL AT ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE IN THE PLANE CARRYING THE BODY OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY:
   "THIS IS A SAD TIME FOR ALL PEOPLE. WE HAVE SUFFERED A LOSS THAT CANNOT BE WEIGHE. FOR ME IT IS A DEEP PERSONAL TRAGEDY. I KNOW THE WORLD SHARES THE SORROW THAT MRS. KENNEDY AND HERXX FAMILY BEAR. I WILL DO MY BEST. THAT IS ALL I CAN DO. I ASK FOR YOUR HELP -- AND XXXX GOD'S."
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