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Lot Essay
"The idea is not to live forever, it is to create something that will"1 - Andy Warhol
For Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe exuded the sultry glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Age, a powerhouse of the silver screen whose personal life was nevertheless plagued with tragedy. Her death represented a certain loss of American innocence and the impact of the young celebrity's death was felt around the world. Newspaper accounts of the tragedy appeared on the east coast on the morning of August 6, 1962, which happened to be the day of Warhol's thirty-fourth birthday. He doubtless saw the extensive coverage in the New York Mirror, where the headline announced: "Marilyn Monroe Kills Self — Found Nude in Bed … Hand on Phone … Took 40 Pills.”
Warhol met Monroe a few times before her death, and had avidly followed her career. She was a regular customer at Serendipity, a coffee shop on New York's Upper East Side that Warhol and his friends frequented, selling many of his drawings there. Monroe possessed a tragic romance balanced with a striking naiveté that gave her a magnetic pull. Commenting on Warhol's attraction to the starlet, Tony Scherman stated, "Marilyn's image exuded sensual mischief and a childlike joy, but her life was a non-stop disaster-and she came to embody the gap between glamorous appearance and personal tragedy."2
Warhol loved this mix of glamour and tragedy that Monroe personified, and upon learning of her death, he immediately set to work on her portrait. In these early paintings and in the subsequent screenprinted portfolio from 1967, the lively coloration of Warhol’s portrait hints at the artifice behind the star’s made-up, silver-screen persona that masked her true identity and the humble origins from which she rose to great fame. Rather than opting for verisimilitude, Warhol’s Marilyn images are a series of vividly-colored images, in wild combinations that evoke the psychedelia of the era. When Warhol decided to create the portfolio of screenprints in her honor, he moved away from his gilded stylized drawings of the 1950s, working instead with his newly found silkscreen techniques that he had previously used for his Coke Bottle and Dollar Bills series. Rendered in a heady Pop palette of neon pinks, blues and greens, the portfolio celebrates its subject's glamorous life, but hints at the ephemeral nature of fame and fortune, a subject that would haunt the artist for the duration of his career. The catalogue raisonné of Warhol’s prints describes this phenomenon: “However Warhol intended his portraits to be seen—as vanitas images, history painting, or simply glamour poses—he did more than any other artist to revitalize the practice of portraiture, bringing renewed attention to it in the avant-garde world. He reflected the desires and dreams of a new decade."3
Warhol used the same 1953 photograph as he had used in earlier portraits for the 1967 portfolio, a publicity photograph showing Monroe as she posed for the camera to promote the film Niagara in 1962. Zooming in on the starlet’s face, Warhol presents a tighter, more closely-cropped portrait, which he’s adjusted and refined. Warhol's signature use of repetition intensifies the crystallization of Monroe's face in the viewer's memory.
Warhol seems to convey Marilyn’s star power and the effect of her celebrity persona in supernatural terms, elevating her status from star of the silver screen to modern-day icon. Warhol’s close friend and confidant, David Bourdon, described: "Warhol's Marilyn silkscreens are even more vivid and lurid than his earlier portraits of her on canvas. He chose lush, non-naturalistic colors, with the blazing hues in startling combinations. … From the beginning, Warhol's Marilyns were considered the most desirable of all his prints. For a few years, it was virtually impossible to make the rounds of savvy art collectors' homes without encountering Marilyns at every turn. Their initial popularity was due in large part, of course, to Monroe's enduring appeal. But the prints' artistic staying power is due to Warhol's audacious originality as a colorist."4
Just as Warhol solidified the image of a Campbell's soup can as a fixed image, the public remembers Warhol's Marilyn as he painted her. Both homage to her life and a critique of the celebrity culture that triggered her fall, Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) became one of Warhol's most iconic and illustrious series. Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) celebrates its subject's life and glamour, but discreetly hints at the ephemerality of fame and fortune, an effect deepened by the viewer's knowledge of Monroe's tragic end. Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) is therefore the perfect encapsulation of the spirit of an age; a candy-colored memento mori.
1 Andy Warhol, quoted by Jaime Weinstein, 'Pop Goes Dior', Eidce, Winter Issue 2012-2013, p. 111.
2 T. Scherman and D. Dalton, POP: The Genius of Andy Warhol, New York, 2001, p. 125.
3 C. Defendi, F. Feldman and J. Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987, New York, 2003, p. 23.
4 D. Bourdon, Warhol, New York, Abrams, 1995, p. 26.
For Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe exuded the sultry glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Age, a powerhouse of the silver screen whose personal life was nevertheless plagued with tragedy. Her death represented a certain loss of American innocence and the impact of the young celebrity's death was felt around the world. Newspaper accounts of the tragedy appeared on the east coast on the morning of August 6, 1962, which happened to be the day of Warhol's thirty-fourth birthday. He doubtless saw the extensive coverage in the New York Mirror, where the headline announced: "Marilyn Monroe Kills Self — Found Nude in Bed … Hand on Phone … Took 40 Pills.”
Warhol met Monroe a few times before her death, and had avidly followed her career. She was a regular customer at Serendipity, a coffee shop on New York's Upper East Side that Warhol and his friends frequented, selling many of his drawings there. Monroe possessed a tragic romance balanced with a striking naiveté that gave her a magnetic pull. Commenting on Warhol's attraction to the starlet, Tony Scherman stated, "Marilyn's image exuded sensual mischief and a childlike joy, but her life was a non-stop disaster-and she came to embody the gap between glamorous appearance and personal tragedy."2
Warhol loved this mix of glamour and tragedy that Monroe personified, and upon learning of her death, he immediately set to work on her portrait. In these early paintings and in the subsequent screenprinted portfolio from 1967, the lively coloration of Warhol’s portrait hints at the artifice behind the star’s made-up, silver-screen persona that masked her true identity and the humble origins from which she rose to great fame. Rather than opting for verisimilitude, Warhol’s Marilyn images are a series of vividly-colored images, in wild combinations that evoke the psychedelia of the era. When Warhol decided to create the portfolio of screenprints in her honor, he moved away from his gilded stylized drawings of the 1950s, working instead with his newly found silkscreen techniques that he had previously used for his Coke Bottle and Dollar Bills series. Rendered in a heady Pop palette of neon pinks, blues and greens, the portfolio celebrates its subject's glamorous life, but hints at the ephemeral nature of fame and fortune, a subject that would haunt the artist for the duration of his career. The catalogue raisonné of Warhol’s prints describes this phenomenon: “However Warhol intended his portraits to be seen—as vanitas images, history painting, or simply glamour poses—he did more than any other artist to revitalize the practice of portraiture, bringing renewed attention to it in the avant-garde world. He reflected the desires and dreams of a new decade."3
Warhol used the same 1953 photograph as he had used in earlier portraits for the 1967 portfolio, a publicity photograph showing Monroe as she posed for the camera to promote the film Niagara in 1962. Zooming in on the starlet’s face, Warhol presents a tighter, more closely-cropped portrait, which he’s adjusted and refined. Warhol's signature use of repetition intensifies the crystallization of Monroe's face in the viewer's memory.
Warhol seems to convey Marilyn’s star power and the effect of her celebrity persona in supernatural terms, elevating her status from star of the silver screen to modern-day icon. Warhol’s close friend and confidant, David Bourdon, described: "Warhol's Marilyn silkscreens are even more vivid and lurid than his earlier portraits of her on canvas. He chose lush, non-naturalistic colors, with the blazing hues in startling combinations. … From the beginning, Warhol's Marilyns were considered the most desirable of all his prints. For a few years, it was virtually impossible to make the rounds of savvy art collectors' homes without encountering Marilyns at every turn. Their initial popularity was due in large part, of course, to Monroe's enduring appeal. But the prints' artistic staying power is due to Warhol's audacious originality as a colorist."4
Just as Warhol solidified the image of a Campbell's soup can as a fixed image, the public remembers Warhol's Marilyn as he painted her. Both homage to her life and a critique of the celebrity culture that triggered her fall, Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) became one of Warhol's most iconic and illustrious series. Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) celebrates its subject's life and glamour, but discreetly hints at the ephemerality of fame and fortune, an effect deepened by the viewer's knowledge of Monroe's tragic end. Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) is therefore the perfect encapsulation of the spirit of an age; a candy-colored memento mori.
1 Andy Warhol, quoted by Jaime Weinstein, 'Pop Goes Dior', Eidce, Winter Issue 2012-2013, p. 111.
2 T. Scherman and D. Dalton, POP: The Genius of Andy Warhol, New York, 2001, p. 125.
3 C. Defendi, F. Feldman and J. Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987, New York, 2003, p. 23.
4 D. Bourdon, Warhol, New York, Abrams, 1995, p. 26.