Two weeks after the record sale of a portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec hangs on one of its walls another work by the famous American artist featuring the Hollywood icon with a tragic destiny. .
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Produced in 1962, the year of the death of the legendary platinum-blonde actress, the painting entitled The Lips of Marilyn Monroe is one of the works of American artists who will make up the America exhibition. Between dreams and realities, which will be on view in Quebec City, from June 9 to September 5.
To make it, Andy Warhol cut out the legendary mouth of the actress and reproduced it by screen printing. The painting usually resides in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, a museum of contemporary art integrated into the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington.
This is also where the 96 paintings, videos, sculptures and photographs of America… come from, among which we can admire works by Jackson Pollock, Edward Hopper, Arthur Jafa, Willem de Kooning and many others.
Unwittingly, the MNBAQ showed opportunism by exhibiting this painting by the standard-bearer of pop art. Just two weeks ago, Andy Warhol’s most famous painting, the 1964 portrait of Marilyn Monroe Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, went to auction for $190 million, a record sum for a work of art. twentieth century art.
Not a first for Warhol at the MNBAQ
Moreover, this is not the first time that the MNBAQ presents Warhol. In 2009, two of his films were shown continuously during the exhibition Emporte-moi/Sweep Me Off My Feet.
The museum also has a print of Warhol, dated 1970, in its collection, but it has never been shown to the public yet.