Marilyn Monroe portfolio
There was also an "announcement" print for the later series, a yellow, green and pink Marilyn, which lacked borders and was much smaller than the rest, with the image 6 inches square.
[citation needed] Prior to his success as an artist, Warhol used his degree in pictorial design to be employed as a commercial illustrator in New York City, producing advertisements for Glamour fashion magazine whilst exhibiting his work on a small scale.
Whilst he strictly kept his business and personal art pieces separate, his audience-orientated day-job provided him with a backing to manipulate the public's views in Untitled from Marilyn Monroe.
[1][4][5] The separation between his art is clear as his commercial work of the 1940-50s period is much lighter due to the addition of ink by hand to drawn images to be then pressed onto a blank surface so the wet lines transfer.
[3] Although much influenced by Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, pioneers of the Neo-Dada movement, Warhol embodied the colourful and bold pop-art as the basis of his work, and as a rejection of Jackson Pollock's and Willem de Kooning's abstract expressionism.
[7] Instead of focusing on emotion and dramatic action, Pop Art sought to represent the dynamics of the world and be inclusive of the state of objects and society in everyday life.
This technique was employed Warhol at a perfect time when America's gross national products quadrupled in 1960's creating an economy based on consumerism.
[10][11] His apparently random assortment of subjects, is a "careful selection through elimination", of public events or famous figures which convey historic, popular and meaningful connotations.
After being scouted whilst working at a military factory, her pale features and blonde hair gained wide recognition and she signed a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century Fox.
[2] His minimal use of detail and heavy outlines exaggerated and maintained Monroe's striking facial features and her sculpted hair through the colourful repetitions,[5] which suggest more to the artwork and the concept of cyclic history.
[2][20] The original still was also cropped by Warhol to bring Monroe's iconic features into focus to exhibit her social status and portray her as being closer to the audience.
The detached nature of, and the minor changes among, the ten prints, attributable to the imperfections, smudges and blurriness from the silkscreen technique, emphasise the disconnect between the public and the private Monroe.
Warhol paid tribute to her desires through the prints which drive attention away from her private moments and close in on her beauty and her role as a model and an actress.
The endurance of the works and the growth in price is attributed to the fact that Warhol's art is still relevant and reflective of today's glamour and the consumer culture.
[2] Whilst the original silk-screened prints made by hand are worth millions, due to the iconic nature of this work, computer-printed "Marilyns" is also sold for a much lesser price.
