Christ $9.98 (negative and positive)
- Artist: Andy Warhol
- Date: 1985–6
- Medium: Acrylic paint and silkscreen on 2 canvases
- Dimensions: support: 510 x 405 x 18 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the *Christ $9.98 (negative and positive)* by Andy Warhol. Created in 1985‑86, it signals Warhol’s return to the newspaper adverts that first shaped his early 1960s work. Rather than the polished, high‑contrast screenprints he’d become famous for, Warhol traced the original ads by hand, producing a looser, more graphic black‑and‑white image. The piece is a diptych—two canvases side by side—each bearing a different tone. The left side presents a stark, “negative” version of the Christ icon, while the right offers a “positive” counterpart, a visual dialogue that echoes the tension of the Cold War era.
Warhol, a devout Catholic raised amid religious iconography, chose Christ as a focal point. In this context, the work merges themes of war, death, and faith, reflecting the anxieties of a world still in the grips of geopolitical conflict. The acrylic paint and silkscreen technique gives the images a crisp, almost mechanical quality, contrasting sharply with the hand‑drawn tracing that defines the overall style. This artwork invites viewers to consider how the sacred and the political intertwine, all wrapped in Warhol’s unmistakable pop‑culture sensibility.
See it in person
Christ $9.98 (negative and positive) is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
