Accession Number
1969/1.84

Title
Marilyn

Artist(s)
Andy Warhol

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1967

Medium & Support
screenprint on paper

Dimensions
36 1/16 x 36 1/16 in. (91.5 x 91.5 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Frances and Sydney Lewis

Label copy
6/28/10
Andy Warhol (United States, 1928–1987)
Marilyn
1967
Screenprint on paper
Gift of Frances and Sydney Lewis
By the time of her suicide in 1962, few figures played as visible a role in the public imagination as Marilyn Monroe. Like Jacqueline Kennedy, another of Warhol's subjects of the 1960s, Marilyn Monroe combined beauty, fame, and tragedy in equal measure.
Shortly after her death, Warhol began an extensive series of works based on a publicity still for the 1953 film Niagara. In 1967, he produced a portfolio of ten portraits, three of which are displayed here. The commercial technique of screenprinting simultaneously provides the image with a clean, hard-edged legibility and allows for endless variation in color and registration. In these works, Marilyn is both canonized as a martyr and exposed as a highly structured image. By celebrating the veneer of glamour and fame while at the same time acknowledging its complexity (and morbidity), these prints reveal Warhol's subtle grasp of American celebrity culture.

Subject matter
From a portfolio of ten screenprints based on a publicity still of Marilyn Monroe from the 1953 film "Niagara".

Physical Description
Portrait of Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
planographic print

Additional Object Classification(s)
Print

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Neo-Dada
actors
film stills
historical regions
icons
modern and contemporary art
portraits
screen printing
suicides