Weng Contemporary – Andy Warhol, ” Marilyn (Purple-Red)”, 2010

Of all Andy Warhol’s celebrity subjects, none seem more perfectly emblematic of how the artist perceived and synthesised America than Marilyn Monroe. Warhol saw in Monroe all the promise, beauty, sex symbol, a Hollywood product, the fame and tragedy that 1960s America was capable of realizing. In his Marilyn portraits – which he began shortly after Monroe’s death, in August 1962 and taking on the suggestion of Henry Geldzahler – it’s impossible to locate what one might call the truth of the subject. Warhol liked watching Hollywood films, saying that the only real reason we watch movies is to see the stars and to see them as often as possible. His Marilyns are technically incredibly special, as when you look at them the colour of the background pops first and the drawing comes second, a complete reversal of the usual order seen in painting.
“ I just see Monroe as just another person. As for whether it’s symbolical to paint Monroe in such violent colors: it’s beauty, and she’s beautiful and if something’s beautiful it’s pretty colors, that’s all. „

—Andy Warhol