Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn), 1967 by Andy Warhol

Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn); Serigraph, 1967, on wove paper; Signed in pencil Andy Warhol and stamp-numbered 113/250 in ink verso; Published by Factory Additions, New York; Size - Sheet 36" x 36", Frame 38" x 38"; Framed floated on a acid free white mat, wood frame, and plexiglass; Catalog Raisonne: Feldman/Schellmann: II.28.

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“In August 62 I started doing silkscreens. I wanted something stronger that gave more of an assembly line effect. With silkscreening you pick a photograph, blow it up, transfer it in glue onto silk. and then roll ink across it so the ink goes through the silk but not through the glue. That way you get the same image, slightly different each time. It was all so simple quick and chancy. I was thrilled with it. When Marilyn Monroe happened to die that month, I got the idea to make screens of her beautiful face the first Marilyns.” - Andy Warhol

Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson in 1926, became a cultural phenomenon in the 1950's and 60's. Her image embodying the allure of Hollywood and epitomized the complicated dynamics of fame and fortune. With here platinum blonde hair, breathy voice, and voluptuous figure; Marilyn Monroe was much more than an actress, she was an icon. However, behind the glamorous persona, she was a woman struggling with her own identity, mental health, and the pressures that come from living in the public eye.

 

The year 1962 heralded the arrival of Pop Art as an artistic movement, and Andy Warhol began his transition from hand painting to the production of photo-transferred art. Choosing a publicity photograph of the actress taken in 1953 for her film Niagara, the image would become a modern American icon that Warhol would return throughout his career. He created his first silkscreen of Marilyn Monroe, just weeks after her untimely death at the age of thirty-six. With Marilyn, Warhol found the perfect combination of celebrity, disaster, and mass media; themes that had already had begun to fascinate the artist. Marilyn Monroe personified the cult of celebrity, beauty, sex symbol, and Hollywood glamor; and after she passed away she came to represent loneliness, tragedy, and the unfulfilled promise of the American dream. Warhol transformed Marilyn Monroe's image into an immaculate portrait that radiated in timeless bold technicolor. 

 

When Warhol decided to create a series in her honor, he moved away from his gold gilded stylized drawings of the 1950s and worked instead with his newly found silkscreen techniques. Warhol’s well-documented factory-line production methods were perhaps at their most poignant in his treatment of Marilyn. The slippages and imperfections that occur in the silkscreen process add an effect that conveys the human fragility of the iconic film star.

In 1966, Warhol together with the art dealer David Whitney, began publishing print portfolios under the name Factory Additions, utilizing his most famous subjects including Marilyn, Campbell's Soup, and Flowers. Published in 1967, Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) was the first of the Factory Additions projects and has since remained Warhol's most celebrated graphic works. The "Marilyn" prints were the first technically complex prints the artist made, and they were derived from cropping a publicity image of Marilyn Monroe thus emphasizing her face. Warhol had already used this image in over twenty screen printed canvases in prior years. For the portfolio of ten serigraphs, Warhol used a wide variety of color combination with differences in the registration to create portraits that range from dazzling and glamorous to frazzled and gaudy. 

 

Close up of the edition number and Andy Warhol signature verso.

 

Marilyn Monroe publicity photograph from 1953 for her film Niagara

 

Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn), 1967 by And Warhol

 

"When a person is the beauty of their day, and their looks are really in style, and then the times change and tastes change, and ten years go by, and if they keep exactly their same look and don't change anything and if they take care of themselves, they'll still be a beauty." - Andy Warhol

 

The success of the Marilyn Series marked a turning point of Warhol's working process, as he turned completely towards utilizing silkscreens for both painting and printing. He would continued to use the image of Marilyn as subject matter throughout his entire career. By utilizing silkscreens, Warhol was able to achieve the mechanized (factory) look that he desired, thereby fulfilling his desire to "be a machine." Each image in the portfolio suite of ten prints would be identical in size but vary in their color combinations. The choice of the color to be used for each screen resulted in an image that could be Hollywood glamor, garish, or outrageous in it's composition. The Marilyn prints would become the greatest of his graphic oeuvre, and forever be instantly recognized as quintessential Warhol. At the same time, Warhol would immortalize Marilyn as both a timeless Hollywood legend and a masterpiece of modern art. Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn), 1967 II.28 generally referred to as the blue face Marilyn by Andy Warhol is an absolutely fantastic work by the great Pop artist. The image showcases the icon as a glamorous Hollywood sex symbol, with the Warhol treatment of using bold technicolor in combination with image flattening. This piece would be a fantastic addition to any high end fine art collection!

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