Warhol’s Portrait of Marilyn Becomes the Second Most Expensive Artwork to Ever Be Sold at Auction
Andy Warhol, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn. Acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen. 1964. Courtesy of Christie's Images LTD. 2022
Despite catastrophic falls on the stock exchange in recent days, the art market has proven to be in rude health with an iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol selling for an astonishing to $195 million at Christie’s in New York on Monday – the second-highest artwork to even be sold at auction.
What’s astounding is that “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” is just one in a whole series of portraits Warhol made of the actress following her death in 1962. After less than five minutes of bidding, the work was purchased by mega-dealer Larry Gagosian (Gagosian Gallery) – up until this point, he has declined to say whether the work was bought for a client or for himself.
The previous sale record for an artwork made by an American at auction was a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat which sold for $110.5 million in 2017. Rather surprisingly, however, the sale has been somewhat of a disappointment as pre-sale estimates had expected the work to sell for as much as $200 million.
The painting is one of the high-water marks of American Pop Art and according to Alex Rotter, Christie’s Chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art who brokered the deal, “The painting transcends the genre of portraiture, superseding 20th-century art and culture.” He goes on to say that this record-breaking sale “is a testament to the strength, the vibrancy, and the overall excitement of the art market today.”
Left: Marilyn Monroe. Right: Andy Warhol by Jack Mitchell. Images via Wikimedia Commons
The painting was based on a promotional photo of Monroe taken from the film ”Niagara", 1953 and its title “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn”, is in reference to an incident in which a woman shot at four portraits of the actor in Warhol’s studio with a hand pistol.
For Warhol, Marilyn's huge worldwide appeal, juicy private life and tragic death made her into the ultimate female celebrity of the postwar era. Just a few weeks after the actress’ drug overdose, he began producing these silk-screens knowing full well that a portrait of Marilyn would be immensely popular. What Warhol manages to do, is to both celebrate the glamorous veneer of her celebrity, whilst alluding to its darker complexity and at the same time revealing tantalizing insights into American pop culture.
“It was all so simple quick and chancy.” Warhol once said about the silk-screens, “I was thrilled with it. When Marilyn Monroe happened to die that month, I got the idea to make screens of her beautiful face.”
Warhol’s masterpiece suspends the dead starlet into a void of abstract color. Detached, replicated and elevated, Warhol’s image of Marilyn Monroe becomes canonized like a modern-day religious idol. With this work, Warhol genuinely made an icon of an icon and seventy years after it was made, it is clearly still deserving of our veneration.