Apocalypse Now (painting)

[1][a] The work (a first version of which exists on paper[6][b]) was originally displayed in April 1988 at a collaborative show in the East Village at the 303 Gallery, along with three urinals sculpted by artist Robert Gober.

[1] "It was probably the painting of the year", said Richard Flood, chief curator of the New Museum, who said its text served as "a kind of late-'80s mantra" in the wake of the 1987 "Black Monday" stock market crash.

[1][3] To critic Kay Larson, the stark formatting and "fractured code" of Wool's syntax in Apocalypse Now conveys a warning of disaster "in the coldest terms" and with "telegraphic urgency".

[2] The painting is unusual in Wool's output for having a title, and Flood has observed that the word "apocalypse" itself originally connoted "revelation", the disclosure of knowledge and the lifting of a veil.

[10] An unnamed European curator told The Art Newspaper that Wool's reputation as a blue-chip "must-have artist" was established by a 2008 limited edition monograph issued by Taschen,[11] but that his market inventory, in relatively short supply, was at risk of being controlled (like that of Jean-Michel Basquiat) by a small, powerful clique of collectors.