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2019: 50 Works for 50 Years

Andy Warhol

Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn)

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) began his career creating print advertisements. Inspired by the celebrities and logos he saw in magazines, he took the feeling of Pop culture and reproduced it tenfold. Warhol experimented with many mediums, including painting, printmaking, sculpture and film. His most famous works include his portraits of famous figures and Campbell soup cans.

Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) was a reigning Hollywood film star in the 1950s and early 60s. Warhol immortalized Monroe as an icon of the 20th century in a series of paintings and prints, using a publicity still from the 1951 film Niagara.   

In 1967, Warhol formed his publishing and printmaking business, Factory Additions. The Marilyn Monroe portfolio included ten versions of this screenprint printed in editions of 250. This impression has unique ties to the South Dakota Art Museum. The Museum’s first Director William Landwehr (1941-2018) purchased the print for his personal collection in the late 1960s or early 70s. It was later sold to Mel Spinar, SDSU Professor Emeritus of Art, and donated to the permanent collection.

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