S
© Copyrighted Artwork
This artwork is protected by copyright. We cannot display images of works by artists who passed away after 1954.
See the original at Private Collection in Unknown
Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)
by Andy Warhol, 1963
Details
- Year
- 1963
- Medium
- Silkscreen ink and silver paint on linen
Auction History
$105.4M
Sotheby's / New York
November 13, 2013
Seller
Private Collection
Buyer
Private Collector
Andy Warhol produced this Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) in summer 1963, part of his Death and Disaster series exploring mortality and media sensationalism. The monumental diptych spans over eight feet by thirteen feet, presenting a tabloid photograph of a fatal car crash silkscreened repeatedly across silver spray-painted canvas.
The images cascade down the left panel in a filmstrip arrangement, showing a twisted body in mangled wreckage. Warhol's mechanical repetition deliberately numbs the viewer, demonstrating how mass reproduction drains emotional impact from even the most horrific imagery. The Death and Disaster series comprises roughly 70 works, but only four reach this monumental scale. Silver Car Crash is the only one remaining in private hands.
Art historians position the work alongside Géricault's Raft of the Medusa and Picasso's Guernica as a grand statement painting addressing catastrophe. At Sotheby's in November 2013, it sold for $105.4 million, setting the record for any Warhol at auction.
