Lot Essay
Warhol's screenprint portraits of Marilyn Monroe represent a synthesis of the artist's ideal method and muse. When, in June or July of 1962, Warhol discovered that he could make screenprints from photographic images, he found the medium that could mechanically reproduce the appropriated, commonplace images that came to define him as one of the most important artists of our time.
Soon after her death in 1962, Warhol made a screenprint of Marilyn from a publicity still for her 1952 film, Niagara, an early starring role that defined Monroe as a glamorous sex symbol and Hollywood commodity. Warhol reduced Marilyn's image to its characteristic elements of hair, eyes and lips to emphasize the constructed mask of celebrity. He then mass-produced the manipulated image, revelling in his ability to further objectify the objectified.
The Marilyn portfolio, 1967, is typical of Warhol's portraits in that it is about surface appearances as much as it is about elevating a mass-culture icon to the position of high art ideal. Indeed, the colored Marilyns are among Warhol's most important images because they have affected our collective memory of the actress and immortalized her as an icon of American culture.
Soon after her death in 1962, Warhol made a screenprint of Marilyn from a publicity still for her 1952 film, Niagara, an early starring role that defined Monroe as a glamorous sex symbol and Hollywood commodity. Warhol reduced Marilyn's image to its characteristic elements of hair, eyes and lips to emphasize the constructed mask of celebrity. He then mass-produced the manipulated image, revelling in his ability to further objectify the objectified.
The Marilyn portfolio, 1967, is typical of Warhol's portraits in that it is about surface appearances as much as it is about elevating a mass-culture icon to the position of high art ideal. Indeed, the colored Marilyns are among Warhol's most important images because they have affected our collective memory of the actress and immortalized her as an icon of American culture.