Marilyn Diptych (1962) |
Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962, and within the following weeks after her death, Warhol created a masterpiece with a promotional picture from one of Marilyn's most popular films called "Niagara". It is comprised of 50 different images, the 25 on the right being bright and colorful and the other 25 being black and white and gradually fading. This is a representation of Marilyn's life. Marilyn Diptych is known as the most influential piece of modern art.
|
Eight Elvises (1963) |
Eight Elvises is a 12 foot silk screen painting with 8 identical images of Elvis Presley on it. It is a very unique piece of art and unlike most of Andy Warhol's work, this is one of the only ones that was not copied and mass produced. at auction in 2008, Eight Elvises sold for $100 million, making him one of only 5 artists to have a piece of art sell for that much. This is one of the most expensive painting that Warhol has made.
|
Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962) |
Warhol was inspired to paint portraits of Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese communist revolution, when President Richard Nixon made his very first visit to China. The original painting is 15 feet tall and many consider it to be the most popular of Warhol's paintings and his most popular portrait. It truly shows his artistic talents through his colorful brushstrokes. This was one of Warhol's first paintings showing that mainstream brands, such as Coca-Cola, can be turned into a piece of fine art. He has always been inspired by the idea of consumerism and the popularity of mainstream brand's effect on celeberties and regular people alike. “What’s grand about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same thing as the poorest... you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and, just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke, and no amount of money can get you a better Coke.” He once said " The painting is currently on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. |
|
The Mick Jagger series began in 1963 and continued all the way until early 1970s. These portraits were done at the height of both Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol's fame and popularity. He made 10 screen prints of Jagger varying in different colors and photographs he took himself on his Polaroid camera. He met Jagger before the Rolling Stones became popular in America in 1963 and they had a working relationship ever since. Jagger was a regular in the New York club scene in 60s and 70s. Warhol even designed one of their album covers entitled "Sticky Fingers". |
Michael Jackson 23 (1984)Jackie (1964) |
This silkscreen painting of music legend Michael Jackson was created in 1984. The image is from the "Thriller" music video, one of Michael Jackson's biggest songs. It appeared on the cover of Time in March 1984. There are several different color variations of the painting, and Time ended up using a version with a yellow background. In August 2009, the portrait sold for $1 million at auction. After John F. Kennedy's assination in 1963, Warhol did not find himself particulary saddened or majorly affected by his death. He once said, ""He was handsome, young, smart, but it didn’t bother me that much that he was dead, what bothered me was the way television and radio were programming everybody to feel so sad. It seemed like no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t get away from the thing." but he became inspired with JFK's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy. He went on to make a series of over 300 portraits of her, in a variety of different colors and images the media used of her. He painted her smiles before the assination, the shock and scared look on her face when she heard gunshots, and the sadness on her face at the funeral. |
Big Electric Chair (1967) |
e
The Big Electric Chair painting was apart of his Death and Disaster series, which he started in 1962. Other images in the series depicted images of car crashes and suicides. In 1963, Warhol said, "When you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it doesn't really have an effect." Unlike his other paintings in the series, there is no human presence in the painting, adding an eerie quality. |
|
The Banana is one of Warhol's most well-known and iconic images. It was the cover of The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed's band's debut album. In five years, the album only sold 30,000 copies. The original idea for the album cover was to have the buyer peel back the skin of the banana and reveal a nude colored banana underneath the sticker. The album was delayed because manufacturers had a difficult time bringing the idea to life in a mass quantity. Warhol was also the manager of The Velvet Underground for many years. |
|
"Silver Car Crash" is another painting apart of the Death and Disaster series. This painting shows the immediate aftermath of a terrible car crash, showing a body sprawled out dead in the front of the car. In November 2013, this painting was sold at auction for $105 million, making it officially the highest selling of all of Warhol's paintings. The previously most expensive painting of his was Eight Elvises, sold for $100 million. It was only ever displayed once in public.
Warhol was paid to create a series of religious paintings involving the Last Supper. He used a black and white silk-screen print of the classic Leonardo Da Vinci painting and added his own pop-art style to it. The painting first appeared at a gallery in Milan. This was Andy Warhol's final series before his death in 1987.
|