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Silver Marilyn-Andy Warhol-1

As a golden legend of Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe held particular fascination for Andy Warhol. Her suicide on August 5, 1962 struck a personal chord and precipitated a commemorative series that isolated her beautiful and henceforth elusive visage against variously colored backdrops. In the increasingly secular 1960s, Warhol was quick to recognize that movie stars had replaced the religious figures of his childhood, as the idols which the population at large chose to worship. Andy Wahrol worked with tapestry in his life as works were presented by Charles Slatkin Galleries in 1968 as part of the American Tapestries exhibition, in which the gallery invited a group of contemporary artists to submit designs for tapestries. Warhol gave Marilyn design, which was hand woven into a woollen tapestry for the exhibition. This tapestry of Silver Marylin follows this tradition and it is particularly compelling because its pared-down palette of on the tone of silver refers not only to Warhol's earlier creations, as well as his interest in black and white cinematography, but also to the broader tradition of radical experiments in the history of abstraction.

“ 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