Andrew Warhola (known as Andy Warhol) painted a range of paintings of the actress Marilyn Monroe after she committed suicide in 1962. Warhol made it his goal to mass-produce his art by using a recipe called silk screen. This recipe involves enlarging and transferring a photo on to silk. A range of colors are printed on to a screen using a rubber squeegee.
For his paintings of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol used a picture by Gene Korman from a publicity shoot for the film, Niagara. Andy Warhol painted Marilyn Monroe's paintings with one color: green, blue, lemon yellow turquoise. Next he silk screened her face on top. In this way, he created dissimilar styles and depicted many dissimilar colors. In the paintings, she was whether by herself, multiplied in a grid or doubled. After four months, Andy Warhol's paintings were complete. Andy Warhol issued a folder of his Marilyn Monroe paintings in 1967.
Andy Warhol interest in fame inspired him to make his Marilyn Monroe paintings. Warhol admired Marilyn Monroe as a star. He was fascinated by her charm and idea of her as a role model. In his art work, he portrayed Monroe as not only beautiful, but also dark and mysterious. Warhol invented the phrase, "fifteen minutes of fame" which means a celebrity such as Monroe catches the public's attention for a short lived duration of time. Then, the media moves on to other celebrities who fascinate the world.
