polity united states cold warconcept:era contemporary

Shot Sage Blue Marilyn

Silkscreen ink and acrylic on canvas by Andy Warhol, 1964. One of four 'Shot Marilyns' produced after Dorothy Podber fired a pistol through a stack of Marilyn canvases in 1964. The sage blue variant depicts Marilyn Monroe's face in a flat, high-contrast colorfield derived from a 1953 publicity photograph. Sold at Christie's New York on 9 May 2022 for $195,040,000 — the world record price for a 20th-century work of art at auction.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor the Pop Art / Warhol cluster with the most expensive 20th-century work ever sold at auction. The Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) defines Warhol's silkscreen celebrity practice and holds the $195M world record set at Christie's New York in May 2022.

Notes

·The 'shot' refers to an event in November 1964 when Dorothy Podber, a performance artist invited to The Factory, asked Warhol if she could 'shoot' the paintings. He consented, expecting a photograph; Podber instead drew a pistol and fired a bullet through the stack of four canvases. Warhol had the paintings repaired.
·The photographic source is a 1953 promotional still for the film Niagara, shot by Gene Korman.
·The $195,040,000 price surpassed Picasso's Women of Algiers (Version O) ($179.4M, 2015) to set the auction record for any 20th-century work.
·The sale was conducted by Christie's as a single-lot benefit auction on behalf of the Ammann Foundation, whose primary philanthropic mission was children's healthcare.