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Lot Essay
"I wanted to be Brigitte Bardot. I wanted to be Jeanne Moreau, Marilyn Monroe all packed into one." (H. Solomon, The Andy Warhol Photograph, Pittsburgh, 1999, p.99).
Warhol loved this mix of glamour and tragedy that Marilyn 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" (C. Defendi, F. Feldman and J. Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987, New York, 2003, p. 23).
Holly Solomon (1934–2002) became involved in the contemporary art scene in the early 1960s. Her academic background was not primarily in the visual arts, but rather in theater, her first love. She studied acting at Vassar and Sarah Lawrence College and minored in art history. Discouraged by her attempts to become a professional actress, she turned her focus on supporting contemporary art. She would eventually, in 1975, found the famous Holly Solomon Gallery in New York, where she represented some of the most important artists of the 20th century including Joan Mitchell, Gordon Matta-Clark, Laurie Anderson, Nam June Paik and William Wegman, among others. The present lot is signed and annotated by Holly Solomon on the reverse and is emblematic of the close personal relationship between Solomon and Warhol.
“... I asked Andy to do my portrait. We went to Broadway and 47th Street, where they had this photobooth. Andy met me there, and we had a bunch of quarters. He was very particular about which booth. We tried a whole bunch of them... We finally decided on a booth. Andy took a few pictures, he stood there with me for a little bit and then he left me on my own. So I did the pictures all by myself. It helped being private and he understood that, too... Actually, if you're in a photobooth for a long time it gets pretty boring... I got so bored that I started to really act in them. I was a student then of Lee Strasberg, so I started to do all these acting exercises... Fifty dollars is a lot in a photobooth!”
– Holly Solomon, on the photobooth sitting that produced Warhol's portrait of her.
Warhol loved this mix of glamour and tragedy that Marilyn 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" (C. Defendi, F. Feldman and J. Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987, New York, 2003, p. 23).
Holly Solomon (1934–2002) became involved in the contemporary art scene in the early 1960s. Her academic background was not primarily in the visual arts, but rather in theater, her first love. She studied acting at Vassar and Sarah Lawrence College and minored in art history. Discouraged by her attempts to become a professional actress, she turned her focus on supporting contemporary art. She would eventually, in 1975, found the famous Holly Solomon Gallery in New York, where she represented some of the most important artists of the 20th century including Joan Mitchell, Gordon Matta-Clark, Laurie Anderson, Nam June Paik and William Wegman, among others. The present lot is signed and annotated by Holly Solomon on the reverse and is emblematic of the close personal relationship between Solomon and Warhol.
“... I asked Andy to do my portrait. We went to Broadway and 47th Street, where they had this photobooth. Andy met me there, and we had a bunch of quarters. He was very particular about which booth. We tried a whole bunch of them... We finally decided on a booth. Andy took a few pictures, he stood there with me for a little bit and then he left me on my own. So I did the pictures all by myself. It helped being private and he understood that, too... Actually, if you're in a photobooth for a long time it gets pretty boring... I got so bored that I started to really act in them. I was a student then of Lee Strasberg, so I started to do all these acting exercises... Fifty dollars is a lot in a photobooth!”
– Holly Solomon, on the photobooth sitting that produced Warhol's portrait of her.