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Marilyn Diptych is a 1962 silkscreen print by American Pop art Andy Warhol depicting Marilyn Monroe. The monumental work is one of the artist's most noted of the movie star.
The print consists of 50 images. Each image of the actress is taken from the single Film still from the film Niagara (1953). The underlying publicity photograph that Warhol used as a basis for his many paintings and prints of Marilyn, and the Marilyn Diptych, was owned and distributed by her movie studio. Marilyn Diptych was completed just weeks after Marilyn Monroe's death in August 1962.
Silk-screening was the technique used to create this print. The twenty-five images on the left are painted in color, the right side is black and white, with color and image becoming increasingly distorted.
The Marilyn Diptych is in the collection of the Tate.[1] Andy Warhol; Marilyn Diptych 1962. Tate Museum web page
In a December 2, 2004, article in The Guardian, the painting was named the third most influential piece of modern art in a survey of 500 artists, critics, and others.Charlotte Higgins. " Work of art that inspired a movement ... a urinal". The Guardian. December 2, 2004. Retrieved October 22, 2019. The artwork was also ranked ninth in the past 1,000 years by Kathleen Davenport, Director, Rice University Art Gallery, Houston.(May 19, 2000). Which art will top the Chartres? Four curators share their Top 10 picks and reasoning behind the most influential visual artworks of the past 1,000 years. Christian Science Monitor, p. 12. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
Although some of Warhol’s work was commissioned by individuals or companies, much of it was appropriated from other artists, photographers, and brands. Two of his most famous pieces, Marilyn Diptych and the collection of Campbell’s soup cans, are examples of his habit of appropriation. For the Marilyn series, Warhol took a promotional photograph of Marilyn Monroe and transferred it onto silkscreen print using different colors. He did not own the promotional photograph that he used and he did not have permission to use it. The resulting work was transformative enough that a strong fair use argument could be made today, but Warhol’s appropriation is undeniable. Similarly, Warhol used the Campbell’s Soup logo without permission from the company for dozens of silkscreen prints. Eventually, Campbell’s Soup tacitly approved of his use because of the free marketing they were receiving, but Warhol’s use of their logo without initial permission was still appropriation.
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