Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe series has always fascinated me.
Warhol immortalized Marilyn in countless renditions. From his first, Marilyn Diptych in 1962, where he multiplied her visage by fifty, to his renowned 1967 series of chromatic screen prints.
But it is the Gold Marilyn Monroe that radiates a peerless charm.
In this masterpiece, Marilyn reclines in a solitary splendor amidst a boundless sea of lustrous gold, creating an aura of deep mystique. This poignant masterpiece emerged months after Marilyn’s untimely demise.
It was during one of my visits to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) that I experienced the magnificent Gold Marilyn Monroe in person — her face, resplendent and centered in a colossal canvas measuring 6 feet 11 inches by 4 feet 9 inches, surpassed all mortal proportions. Warhol used metallic gold paint for the background — the outer edges painted in darker tones, gradually transitioned to lighter shades towards the center. In the middle, there’s a darker brown rectangular patch that holds the boldly colored visage of Marilyn Monroe, delicately silkscreened. This meticulous arrangement of colors and elements resulted in a composition extraordinaire!
Art critics perceived the gold expanse as reminiscent of a grand Byzantine altarpiece, creating a contemplative aura. Warhol elevates Marilyn to an almost mythical status — a modern-age Madonna.
Warhol canonizes Monroe, he reveals her public persona as a carefully structured illusion. (Source)
Curator, Anne Umland provided a thought-provoking analysis during this course, “Modern Art and Ideas” by MoMA , I did during pandemic —
“This image was based on a pose photograph used for publicity purposes for the film Niagara in 1953. When you look at it close up, there are all sorts of smudges, blurs, imperfections that I think keep speaking to us of Marilyn lost to the world. Her image is no longer immediate, her eye shadow sort of slides down a little bit into her eyes, the lipstick is a little bit off register. Everything is slipping, slipping away. In other works, Warhol would use the same image of Marilyn, but this one is unique. It’s the only one in the center of a glittery, old field reminiscent of Byzantine Christian icon paintings. So here is Marilyn presented as an object of veneration, but of a very secular sort.”
I stood in front of the enigmatic masterpiece placed at eye level. The painting established a personal connection — Marilyn’s gaze invited me into her world. The juxtaposition of intimacy and isolation created this bittersweet masterpiece, reminding me of the fragility of fame.
An interesting video on the Gold Marilyn Monroe.
