Marilyn Monroe is known as a glamorous, overly-sexualized 1950’s movie star with a dark personal life. Monroe’s persona was closely monitored and distributed by the media and her troubled personal life was highly publicized. She was known for struggling with addiction, depression, and anxiety and was later found dead on August 5th, 1962 from overdosing on barbiturates. Her death was ruled as a probable suicide. Andy Warhol created “Marilyn Diptych” during the weeks following Marilyn Monroe’s death. The diptych became almost as pervasive as Marilyn herself, and it immortalized her. This piece is a visual demonstration of the iconic Hollywood superstar, Marilyn Monroe, her life and death, and how she was objectified by the media. 

The left and the right sides of the diptych represent the life and death of Marilyn Monroe. The left side demonstrates Marilyn’s life, especially the image she was portrayed as. She was a seemingly perfect, bright, and seductive American icon who was happy and full of life. The bright, mostly warm colors that make up the left half of the piece create a sense of liveliness. The right half of the image is a stark contrast to the left. The images on the right are black and white, which can be associated with depression and death. The right half is very dull, especially when contrasted with the left side. The image of Monroe is far more imperfect on the right half than on the left. Her face is completely blacked out in some of the images on the right half. The intentional black smudge on Marilyn Monroe’s face demonstrates that she had flaws and lived a dark, troubled life despite what outward appearances may have projected. The smudge also symbolizes the figurative mask that Monroe wore in public. Monroe’s face fades substantially in the rightmost column of the piece. These images in last column make Marilyn look ghostly. The ghostliness depicts her tragic death and departure from the limelight. The diptych can also be looked at as a cause and effect in her life and death. The left side portrays how Monroe became a mass-distributed media icon who was detached from reality during her life, which caused her tragic demise (represented by the right half.) The immense contrast between the two sides emulate how shocking Monroe’s death was. It seemed as if she led this dazzling lifestyle but in reality, she felt immense inner turmoil which was demonstrated by her death. 

This piece contains fifty images of Marilyn’s face. The repetition of Monroe’s image in Warhol’s work symbolizes the mass marketing of Marilyn Monroe as an Icon. The way the images of Monroe are set up in rows resembles many of the same products sitting on a shelf in a store. She was marketed like merchandise and sold to the cultural obsession Americans had with celebrities. Her face was and still is sold as a ubiquitous household item. By repeating Monroe’s image several times, Warhol emphasizes how widespread her image was. To this day Marilyn Monroe is still a very well-known American Icon. Monroe’s image is mass produced and the media dehumanizes her by doing so. People become desensitized to the immense amount images of celebrities that are released and they no longer see famous people as complex human beings. 

This iconic picture of Marilyn Monroe displays her face with her eyes and mouth slightly open. On one hand this expression can be interpreted as seductive, but it can also convey an emotionless appearance. Her expression demonstrates the overtly-sexualized nature of her public persona as well as the emptiness and isolation she probably felt from her life of fame. Because her expression is so vacant and detached, it is easy for people to dehumanize her and put their own perceptions onto her. She becomes less human and more objectified. This is what gave rise to people’s perception of Marilyn Monroe as a “dumb blonde” and sex symbol type.

In “Marilyn Diptych,” Andy Warhol focuses on Marilyn Monroe’s life and death; as well as her public image in the media. Monroe became a mass-produced sex-symbol and was dehumanized by the way she was portrayed in the media. As highlighted in the diptych, Marilyn Monroe lived a glamorous life and died tragically. Following her death, it became clear that most people did not know Monroe as well as they thought they did through her public persona. In a way her suicide was the most human thing about Marilyn Monroe that was widely broadcasted.