One of the iconic portraits of a Hollywood star sold at Christie’s New York on May 9 for $195.04 million, making Andy Warhol’s “The Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” the most expensive painting of the twentieth century. Experts have previously estimated the value of the painting at $200 million, which almost coincided with the final amount of the sale.
The portrait was made in 1964, two years after the death of the actress, in the technique of screen printing (silkscreen). The “shot” work was made possible by the artist Dorothy Podber. Walking into Warhol’s studio, Podber asked him, as he understood, to take a picture (shoot) of his paintings. However, Podber took out a gun and shot several portraits of Marilyn Monroe stacked together, including this one.
” Shot Sage Blue Marilyn”, 1964
The work, which was auctioned from the collection of Zurich’s Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation, was purchased by Larry Gagosian, a famous American art dealer of Armenian descent. According to a Christie’s press release, all proceeds from the sale of the lot will be donated to a children’s charity.
“Portrait of Marilyn by Andy Warhol is the most significant painting of the 20th century to have come to auction in recent times, the absolute pinnacle of American pop art, a kind of promise of the American dream, in which optimism, fragility, fame and iconicity converge,” said Alex Rotter, head of Christie’s 20th and 21st century art department. – This painting transcends the genre of American portraiture and even twentieth-century art and culture. Along with Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus”, Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, Warhol’s Marilyn is unequivocally one of the greatest works of all time, and its appearance at auction is a unique once-in-a-generation event.
Photo: press-office
