Warhol's Marilyn goes on show at Tate Liverpool

THE first solo exhibition in the North of England featuring the work of celebrated US artist Andy Warhol is to be held at Tate Liverpool in November.

The exhibition, Transmitting Andy Warhol will star one of the most recognised images of the 20^th century, his artwork featuring Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe. The silkscreen, Marilyn Diptych, has been named the world’s third most influential work of modern art.

The event will bring together more than 100 of Warhol’s artworks across a range of media, all created by a man regarded as one of the most influential, controversial and notorious artists of his generation.

Warhol, who was born in the US in 1928, and died in 1987 in New York, held a belief that art should be for everyone and the Tate exhibition will trace how his practice expanded into publishing, film, music and broadcasting.

Andy Warhol

From television commercials to featuring leaders of pop culture, Transmitting Andy Warhol shows how the artist combined the conceptual processes of making, marketing, publicity and distribution within a single artwork.

The three-month exhibition will include some of his best known works including Dance Diagram and Do-it-Yourself paintings.

Warhol’s studio in New York, known as The Factory, became party central for a whole heap of artists as well as the likes of Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and Mick Jagger, as well as celebrated US writer Truman Capote.

Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962. In the following four months, Warhol made more than 20 silkscreen paintings of her, all based on the same publicity photograph from the 1953 film Niagara.

Warhol found in Monroe a fusion of two of his consistent themes: death and the cult of celebrity. By repeating the image, he evokes her ubiquitous presence in the media. The contrast of vivid colour with black and white, and the effect of fading in the right panel are suggestive of the star’s mortality. 

*Transmitting Andy Warhol, Tate Liverpool, Albert Dock, November 7, 2014 runs until February 8, 2015