Marilyn Diptych
| Marilyn Diptych |
|---|
| Andy Warhol , 1962 |
| Acrylic and screen printing |
| 145 × 205 cm |
| Tate Gallery of Modern Art, London
Link to the picture |
Marilyn Diptych is a screen print by Andy Warhol from 1962 and depicts Marilyn Monroe , who was already deceased at the time . The starting image was a press photo of Marilyn Monroe by Gene Korman for the 1953 film Niagara . The work is in the Tate collection Gallery of Modern Art in London .
description
The diptych consists of two panels assembled together: while the left half shows the Marilyn portrait 25 times in a row in bold colors, the right half shows the portrait 25 times in black and white. The pressure is weakest in the top right corner. On the left colored half, the middle row is highlighted by a particularly intense black screen print. In the black-and-white half, which is reminiscent of poor newspaper printing, the second row from the left is particularly noticeable, as Warhol has blurred Monroe's image with black almost beyond recognition.
background
Andy Warhol acquired the actress's press photo from the 1950s just a few days after Marilyn Monroe's death. Without further ado, he cut away the lower part of the bust and had a screen-printed template made from this template, which he did not change any further. American art historian Thomas E. Crow published a similar photo of the Monroe in Art in America magazine in 1987 . Since it must have been taken around the same time as the picture that Warhol had used for countless other Marilyns throughout his career , Crow came to the wrong assumption that Warhol had manipulated the photo. In fact, it's just another, unadulterated shot of the actress.
The Warhol biographer David Bourdon stated that the work was not originally planned as a picture: Warhol initially did not know exactly what to do with the two versions, and he was not sure whether there was a kind of "relationship" would exist between the halves of the picture. However, the visitors to his studio liked the tension between the brightly colored part and the monochrome part so much that he finally put the two panels together.
It should also be shown that the images are not always perfect and that it takes a long process to develop to perfection. All of these images have an error such as black outlines, overexposure or the like.
Web links
- Marilyn Diptych in the Tate Collection
Individual evidence
- ^ Gene Korman: Marilyn Monroe - publicity shot for the film Niagara. Luminous-Lint, accessed April 22, 2010 .
- ^ David Bourdon: Warhol , DuMont, Cologne 1989, pp. 124, 137
- ^ David Bourdon: Warhol , DuMont, Cologne 1989, p. 126
- ^ Arthaus Art Documentary: Andy Warhol, director: Kim Evans, Great Britain, 1987