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Lot Essay
"His [Warhol's] Reversals recapitulate his portraits of famous faces but with the tonal values reversed. As if the spectator were looking at photographic negatives, highlighted faces have gone dark while former shadows now rush forward in electric hues. The reversed Marilyns, especially, have a lurid otherworldly glow, as if illuminated by internal footlights" (D. Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, p. 378).
In 1979, Warhol began his Reversals and Retrospectives, which recycled his trademark motifs in novel contexts. He became one of the shrewdest of the new wave of post-modern artists who emerged in the 1970s who undermined notions of authorship and originality by pastiching art of the past and merging hierarchies of "high" and "low" art with no consideration for their original significance.
Warhol painted a number of images in his Reversal series, and the most sought after is Marilyn, with the multi-colored examples being the most coveted. The present lot is also notable for being one of the very first of the Marilyn Reversals, as it dates from 1979, the first year of a series that he would explore for seven years.
By appropriating his own imagery which had acquired iconic Pop status since their conception almost two decades ago, and were themselves originally culled from popular sources, Warhol trumped even himself. Reincarnating one of the most recognized images of his oeuvre, Warhol infused Marilyn (Reversal Series) (1979) with new meaning and fresh insight.
In the present work, Monroe's physiognomy is cloaked in a dark veil, but her famously alluring features pulsate with hot pink and electric blue energy. Warhol intended for his original images of Marilyn from 1962 to be funereal and commemorative icons. With her shadowy visage rendered ghostly and further distanced in time, Marilyn (Reversal Series) extends a heightened mournfulness compared to the lurid, mask-like images of its earlier incarnations. Appearing like a photographic negative, the present work is redolent of a faded memory, and is therefore a poignant evocation of a long extinguished persona.
The work also laments the passing of an era, the 1960s, with which Monroe was associated, but also begat Warhol's career and the Pop art movement. Interested in memento mori, the artist's career has been peppered with images of damaged soup cans (1962), electric chairs (1963), plane and car crashes (1963), skulls (1976) and aged self-portraits (1989). However, Monroe had far more significance: she presented Warhol with more than just an additional motif for his multiple forays into memento mori; she epitomized the artist's combined obsessions with celebrity, beauty, glamour and death. Insecure of his own looks and craving fame, it is almost as though Warhol sought transference in his images of Monroe.
Conceived passed his heyday in the 1960s and after his brush with mortality in 1968, Marilyn (Reversal Series) reveals Warhol's tireless genius and ability for continuous innovation. Along with the other Reversals and Retrospectives, it takes stock of Warhol's career, and legitimizes it by stating it worthy of appropriation. Like Jasper Johns, who recycled the same motifs in his later years, and Marcel Duchamp, who created his La Bonte en Valise works containing miniatures of his past efforts, Warhol restates his place in the art historical cannon. Largely obfuscated and flickering through like "internal footlights," Marilyn (Reversal Series) is a archeological relic of Monroe, of Warhol and of an era; it boldly claimed its stake in history at its conception. Almost thirty years later, it is a vital part of it.
In 1979, Warhol began his Reversals and Retrospectives, which recycled his trademark motifs in novel contexts. He became one of the shrewdest of the new wave of post-modern artists who emerged in the 1970s who undermined notions of authorship and originality by pastiching art of the past and merging hierarchies of "high" and "low" art with no consideration for their original significance.
Warhol painted a number of images in his Reversal series, and the most sought after is Marilyn, with the multi-colored examples being the most coveted. The present lot is also notable for being one of the very first of the Marilyn Reversals, as it dates from 1979, the first year of a series that he would explore for seven years.
By appropriating his own imagery which had acquired iconic Pop status since their conception almost two decades ago, and were themselves originally culled from popular sources, Warhol trumped even himself. Reincarnating one of the most recognized images of his oeuvre, Warhol infused Marilyn (Reversal Series) (1979) with new meaning and fresh insight.
In the present work, Monroe's physiognomy is cloaked in a dark veil, but her famously alluring features pulsate with hot pink and electric blue energy. Warhol intended for his original images of Marilyn from 1962 to be funereal and commemorative icons. With her shadowy visage rendered ghostly and further distanced in time, Marilyn (Reversal Series) extends a heightened mournfulness compared to the lurid, mask-like images of its earlier incarnations. Appearing like a photographic negative, the present work is redolent of a faded memory, and is therefore a poignant evocation of a long extinguished persona.
The work also laments the passing of an era, the 1960s, with which Monroe was associated, but also begat Warhol's career and the Pop art movement. Interested in memento mori, the artist's career has been peppered with images of damaged soup cans (1962), electric chairs (1963), plane and car crashes (1963), skulls (1976) and aged self-portraits (1989). However, Monroe had far more significance: she presented Warhol with more than just an additional motif for his multiple forays into memento mori; she epitomized the artist's combined obsessions with celebrity, beauty, glamour and death. Insecure of his own looks and craving fame, it is almost as though Warhol sought transference in his images of Monroe.
Conceived passed his heyday in the 1960s and after his brush with mortality in 1968, Marilyn (Reversal Series) reveals Warhol's tireless genius and ability for continuous innovation. Along with the other Reversals and Retrospectives, it takes stock of Warhol's career, and legitimizes it by stating it worthy of appropriation. Like Jasper Johns, who recycled the same motifs in his later years, and Marcel Duchamp, who created his La Bonte en Valise works containing miniatures of his past efforts, Warhol restates his place in the art historical cannon. Largely obfuscated and flickering through like "internal footlights," Marilyn (Reversal Series) is a archeological relic of Monroe, of Warhol and of an era; it boldly claimed its stake in history at its conception. Almost thirty years later, it is a vital part of it.