Sunset 1972

Andy Warhol made this Sunset sometime in his career. It's so simple, right? Just a few blocks of color, an orange sun, and yet, it totally works. You can see the screen printing, it's not trying to hide anything, and the colors kind of vibrate against each other. Warhol's all about that surface, the flat plane, not trying to trick you with perspective or shading. It’s like, here it is, a sunset, but also just colors on a surface. The orange circle, that sun, it’s not perfect, it’s got a slightly ragged edge, which makes it feel kind of vulnerable and handmade. It reminds me a little bit of those Rothko color fields, but with a pop art twist. Where Rothko is all serious and spiritual, Warhol’s like, yeah, it’s a sunset, so what? It's art as experience and as something to be consumed, it's an ongoing conversation.