Andy Warhol

Heidelberg, Kunstverein, Blau, Farbe der Ferne, March - May 1990, p. 589, illustrated in color
Hamburg, Deichtorhallen; Stuttgart, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, Andy Warhol Retrospective, July 1993 - February 1994, p. 108, illustrated in color
Luzern, Kunstmuseum, Andy Warhol Paintings: 1960 - 1986, July - September 1995, cat. no. 71, p. 147 illustrated in color

Exh. Cat., Hannover, Kestner - Gesellschaft, Andy Warhol 1961 - 1981, 1981, p. 182, illustrated
Flash Art, January 1981, p. 5, illustrated in color
"Heidelberg: Blau - Farbe der Ferne", Art Kunstmagazin, March 1990, p. 152, illustrated in color

Warhol’s fascination with celebrity extended to the re-appropriation of his own iconic images, which by the late 1970s had entered the cultural ether in an unrivalled and revolutionary manner. Executed at the peak of Warhol’s fame, the present work belongs to Warhol’s retrospective Reversal Series, so called because it involved a process of reversing the original silkscreen printing process of earlier images to create negative impressions. As David Bourdon writes, “Warhol’s Reversals recapitulate his portraits of famous faces…but with the tonal values reversed.  As if the spectator were looking at photographic negatives, highlighted faces have gone dark while former shadows now rush forward in electric hues. The reversed Marilyns, especially, have a lurid otherworldly glow, as if illuminated by internal footlights.” (David Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, p. 378) Commissioned by Bruno Bischofberger in 1979, for the present work, Warhol returned to the best known motif of them all, Marilyn Monroe, reincarnating the image which had gained him widespread notoriety and acclaim twenty years earlier and invigorating it with fresh life and meaning.

Enveloping Marilyn’s distinctive visage in a dark veil, as if shot in x-ray, her familiar, pouting features pulsate with an inner vitality as they burst forth in swirling waves of electric blue. Nine Blue Marilyns (Reversal Series) shows Warhol to be a tireless innovator and exposes the natural evolution of the concept underscoring his Pop conquest. Obsessed with the imperfections of his own appearance, Warhol from the outset of his career questioned the nature of art and beauty. Plundering instantly recognisable, glamorous images from the pantheon of modern celebrity, Warhol sought to challenge conventional notions of originality and craftsmanship in art. The readily available ‘Low Art’ sources to which he was drawn owed nothing to the traditional artistic practice but rather originated from the utopia of consumerism and popular culture. In doing so Warhol questioned the high art expectations of subject matter. After all, what was more beautiful than Marilyn Monroe? And why should a picture of her be considered any less artistic than one of Isabella D’Este, Madame de Pompadour or Mona Lisa? Warhol had a natural draughtsmanship with which he initially made his reputation. However, instead of painting the icons of contemporary existence by hand, Warhol favoured the mechanical silkscreen process as a method of artistic creation, believing it more suited to the world of modernity immortalised in his canvases. The bold and unashamed repetition of images, in works such as Twenty-Five Colored Marilyns from 1962, further served to strengthen Warhol’s challenge to the coveted ‘High’ art dictum of uniqueness.

In the Reversal Series, Warhol returns to the same questions raised in his original Marilyns with self-referential vigour. However here he is not just scrutinizing issues of authorship, authenticity and artistic value but also the legitimacy of his own artistic code. Nine Blue Marilyns (Reversal Series) witnesses Warhol’s career going full circle, recycling this ‘signature’ motif in an unexplored context. The result is a striking combination of old and new. The vibrant Day-Glo colours here recall the vibrant and shocking palette of Warhol’s earliest Marilyns where he had deliberately chosen lurid, conflicting hues to transcend the humanity of the recently deceased star.

It is important when confronted with such a familiar image as Marilyn to reflect on the death-related origins of this motif in Warhol’s work: “I guess it was the big plane crash picture, the front page of a newspaper: 129 DIE. I was also painting the Marilyns. I realised that everything I was doing must have been Death. It was Christmas or Labor Day – a holiday – and every time you turned on the radio they said something like, ‘4 million are going to die.’ That started it. But when you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it doesn’t really have the same effect.” (Exh. Cat., Houston, Menil Collection, Andy Warhol: Death and Disasters, 1988, p. 19)

With Marilyn however, Warhol found a momento mori which could unite the obsessions driving his career: glamour, beauty and death. As a star of the silver screen and the definitive international sex symbol of her era, Marilyn Monroe epitomised the fame and glamour of celebrity that Warhol craved. The original source image he used for his Marilyns was a publicity shot of the actress, and it is no coincidence that the rapidly repeating Nine Blue Marilyns (Reversal Series) evoke a flickering motion picture film strip. “Warhol turned Marilyn Monroe into an emblem for our age: by constant visual reiteration, he distanced her humanity… Marilyn – victimised in life – became a kind of two-dimensional slogan after Warhol had done with her.” (D. Keith Mano, ‘Warhol – Andy Warhol’, National Review, 22 January, 1988)

Warhol’s pictures of Marilyn, Jackie and Liz have been described as modern-age Madonnas, and like Botticelli’s Venus and Leonardo’s Lady With an Ermine, they are portraits radiating the essence of feminine beauty. “They are not photographs of public stars but…icons of our time. They are, in essence, holy.” (Peter Brant in Exh. Cat., New York, C&M Arts, Women of Warhol, Marilyn, Liz & Jackie, 2000, p. 3)  Nine Blue Marilyns (Reversal Series) is a testament to the striking and innovative effects Warhol achieved in this radical departure, and epitomizes his tireless artistic innovation. It has often been said that Warhol made fame famous, and if we accept this as true, then the present work is a dynamic avowal to the power of the Warhol look. By choosing his own legendary image of Marilyn as an icon of celebrity in itself, the Marilyn Reversals become metaphorical self-portraits laying claim to the value and history of his artistic legacy.