One Multicoloured Marilyn 1979 - 1986

This 'One Multicoloured Marilyn' by Andy Warhol, who was around from 1928 to 1987, feels like a screen-printed ghost. The colour palette is bold but somehow muted, like a memory fading into abstraction. It's a process of layering, repeating, messing up, and that’s what makes it so alive. Check out the way Warhol handles the materiality of the image. There's this tension between the slick, mass-produced feel of the print and the almost clumsy, hand-painted touches. It’s neither one thing nor the other. Look at the drips around her lips. They’re like tears, or maybe just a happy accident from the printing process, but they add this layer of vulnerability to an otherwise untouchable icon. Warhol’s Marilyns, with their repetition and slight variations, feel like a conversation with artists like Francis Bacon, who also wrestled with the fragmented and distorted image of the human body. Both invite us to see the beauty in imperfection, to embrace ambiguity, and to find our own meanings in the mess.