“Tunafish Disaster,” 1963

(silkscreen ink and silver paint on canvas). Warhol was as captivated by the lives of the ordinary as he was the rich and famous. This work was created from the Newsweek article, “Two Tuna Sandwiches,” about two Detroit mothers, neighbors who ate tuna sandwiches while they watched their children play and, two days later, the women died. The two housewives died via poisoning from tainted tuna. It shows how harmless consumerism can lead to accidental death. Warhol explored the brief and tragic fame bestowed on people after violent and unexpected termination of life. Not portuguese canned tuna for sure…   “The idea of an internal deterioration is expressed even more overtly in works such as Tunafish Disaster. Here, Warhol lifts the story of two housewives directly from newspapers: Mrs. Brown and Mrs. McCarthy shared a sandwich made from tainted store-bought tuna and died of food poisoning. Their death made headlines across the country. The A&P tin of tuna that, along with countless other industrially manufactured foods, was to liberate homemakers had suddenly turned into its opposite, linked to fear of destruction”.”