Oxidation Paintings

Oxidation Paintings appear in Andy Warhol’s diary as works whose material identity is both central and carefully left unexplained. At their November 1986 opening at Gagosian Gallery, they were grouped with the Piss paintings; the crowd’s close inspection made the paintings’ surfaces—and Warhol’s decision not to disclose what lay behind them—the scene’s defining detail.

Identification and Display

On November 7, Warhol recorded that his opening was taking place at Gagosian Gallery. He identified the works on view as “the Piss paintings, the Oxidations,” placing the two names side by side without explaining their distinction or describing how the paintings were made. The diary therefore establishes the Oxidations’ place in the exhibition while leaving their process and precise relation to the alternate label unresolved.

The Opening Reception

Stuart Pivar sent a car for Warhol, and they went together to the opening. Pivar called the works masterpieces; Warhol wondered whether the praise was sincere or intended to flatter him. The remark registers approval but also Warhol’s uncertainty about how to read it, even at an exhibition devoted to his own work.

The reception was crowded, and several older women stood so close to the paintings that their noses were nearly against them as they asked Warhol how he had made the works. He did not have the heart to tell them what the paintings really were. Their physical proximity sharpened the contrast between looking and knowing: the visitors examined the surfaces at close range, while Warhol withheld the explanation that might have changed how they understood what they were seeing.

Material and Meaning

The entry offers no technical account of the Oxidations, and Warhol’s silence at the opening is not a full explanation. Instead, it records a tension between the paintings’ public presentation as exhibition works and the undisclosed material truth he chose not to share with the women examining them. That gap—between visible surface, the label Piss paintings, and the explanation withheld—forms the clearest account the diary provides of how the works were encountered.