Description

Warhol revolutionized artistic production during the 20th century through what he termed business art: “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.” Throughout his career he produced countless projects including paintings, films, books, and a magazine, Interview. The image of Marilyn Monroe in Marilyn x 100, the largest of Warhol’s Marilyn paintings, is appropriated from a publicity still for the 1953 film Niagara. Here, the instantly recognizable face of the iconic starlet has been reproduced through silk-screening, a commercial printing technique, both on top of bold underpainting and in quivering black and white, evocative of newspaper ink. By borrowing recognizable imagery from the consumer marketplace for his fine art, Warhol incisively questioned the meaning of culture, whether high or low.