Lamentation 388 is one of three screenprints in Martha Graham series. The print features dancer Martha Graham, a great influence to modern dance as it is know today. She was the first dancer to perform at the White House and founded New York’s Martha Graham Dance Company. She once said, “I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable. (New York Times, 1985)”
LAMENTATION 388 AS PART OF ANDY WARHOL’S LARGER BODY OF WORK
Lamentation 388 is one of three screenprints produced in the Martha Graham series of 1986. Warhol captures the beauty of a different art form, dance, and replicates its splendor in a still two dimensional image. The source image for the series was taken by American photographer Barbara Morgan, best known for her depictions of modern dancers. To commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Center of Contemporary Dance in New York, Andy Warhol created this series in appreciation of her contribution to the performing arts discipline. Warhol’s portfolio compliments Graham by showing a variation of her abilities not just as a dancer, but as someone who communicates profound emotion through movement and physical expression.
