Andy Warhol’s Electric Chairs Join the Cross in a Lutheran Church

THE ART NEWSPAPER

"Electric Chair" (1967) By Andy Warhol

FINLAND - In Finland’s medieval city Turku, this year’s European Capital of Culture, four pieces of Andy Warhol’s “Electric Chair” series (1971) have been hang up in an surprising location — the city’s Lutheran cathedral. The works, depicting the execution device from Sing Sing maximum security prison in upstate New York, are hanging in one of the church’s chapels. The display is part of a performance and art exhibition entitled “The Last Supper”, which runs until the end of July. “It might sound like an odd idea and actually the church officials disliked my suggestion at first,” said Perttu Ollila, who curated the show. “But Warhol’s religious side is not that well known by the general public and the empty electric chairs can be seen as an empty cross,” he added. Besides the four “Electric Chair” works, the show includes four works from Warhol’s “Last Supper” series. [link]

Warhol's work is displayed in a chapel of the medieval church (Photo: © Kantti/taloforum.fi)