Knives

In January 1983, Madrid experienced one of the most significant cultural milestones of the newly established democracy: the exhibition Pistolas, cuchillos y cruces (Pistols, Knives and Crosses), organised by gallery owner Fernando Vijande. This event not only brought Andy Warhol to the Spanish capital, but also put the city on the international contemporary art map, serving as a bridge between the New York avant-garde and the creative explosion of Madrid’s La Movida. Set up in a garage on Núñez de Balboa Street, the show brought together thirty-five works created specifically for the occasion, in which Warhol explored three symbols laden with tension: guns, knives and crosses. Among the most emblematic pieces in this series is Knives, a work that encapsulates the pop aesthetic and existential angst that marked the American artist’s final period. Knives presents a repeated image of domestic knives, transformed into disturbing icons. Warhol transforms an everyday object into an ambiguous symbol: a functional instrument and, at the same time, a metaphor for violence and mortality. The composition plays with mechanical repetition and chromatic contrast, vibrant colours on dark backgrounds, intensifying the tension between beauty and menace. This series, together with the works dedicated to guns and crosses, reflects the artist’s obsession with the fragility of life and the constant presence of death, a concern that became more acute after the 1968 attempt on his life.

Raúl Martínez Arranz