Shamash meets Andy Warhol - Gun (1982)
Description
This painting is titled Gun (1982) which was made by Andy Warhol in 1982. Paintings with the themes of death became the main theme in Andy Warhol's paintings in the 1960s, because Andy Warhol almost died in 1968 because of a radical feminist, Valerie Solanas. shot Andy Warhol and Mario Amaya at The Factory, Warhol's art studio. Luckily Andy Warhol and Mario Amaya survived death, they were both hospitalized and underwent surgery to remove the bullet. Although Warhol survived, his physical condition was no longer what it used to be. As a result of the bullet pierced his stomach, liver, spleen, esophagus and both lungs he was forced to wear a surgical corset for the rest of his life.
It seems that the attempted murder of him was traumatizing for Andy Warhol. Warhol painted a painting of a gun, the weapon he painted was the exact gun Solanas used to kill him and Amaya. This work is considered one of Warhol's masterpieces. Valerie Solanas knew Warhol before, having been an extra in the Warhol-directed film. Warhol offered him the job, out of compassion for Valerie Solanas, who had come to his studio to offer his script for filming. At first Warhol was interested and willing to film, but the script was lost. Instead Warhol hired Valerie Solanas to be an extra in several of his films, their relationship grew close since then. But even though it was unexpected, that milk would be rewarded with tubal water. Warhol's kindness felt in vain, in fact instead of getting appreciation from Solanas he got a bullet.
Valerie Solanas was tried in 1968 and found mentally unwell, she was convicted of having paranoid schizophrenia. Valerie Solanas, also known as a radical feminist for writing the S.C.U.M Manifesto (1967), a manifesto of the organization she founded the Society for Cutting Up Men (S.C.U.M). It is never clear how many members there are in this organization, many people suspect that it is only Solanas himself and the very small number of members Solanas is just claiming and bluffing.
The SCUM organization is a radical feminist organization that wants a structured, systematic and massive extermination of men from this world. Even the manifesto that he made himself, strongly criticized patriarchy and men in this world both satirically and harshly. Solanas himself is indeed experiencing mental problems, because he was born to a poor immigrant family from Spain. Both of his own parents are broken homes, even Solanas has often been a victim of sexual abuse from his father since childhood. Solanas's tragic background caused her to hate men and grow up to be a lesbian. At first neither the SCUM organization nor the manifesto cared about it, but the media started to report about this organization and find out about the manifesto, because Solanas shot Warhol. Solanas reasoned that he shot Warhol as the first male victim he was going to eliminate, Solanas clinging to his manifesto as justification for his actions. Solanas' actions did not necessarily get the support of other feminist groups, he was widely criticized and considered too radical and even brought excessive polarization with his opinion that he wanted to separate the world without men.
The story of this shooting was filmed in I Shoot Andy Warhol (1996). Solanas was placed in a mental hospital for criminal prisoners, until finally he was sentenced to 3 years in prison for attempted murder. Warhol is very traumatized, as evidenced by the guard at The Factory, the studio itself is very tight. In fact, he became even more paranoid with other people, because he was afraid that Solanas would come to him after his prison term to kill him. Indeed Solanas had stalked several times, all information about Warhol. This led to his re-arrest in 1971. Warhol harshly satirized the thoughts of Solanas and SCUM by making a satirical film, Women in Revolt (1971). The film depicts the main character forming a radical feminist organization "P.I.G." (Politically Involved Girlies).