'Warhol Holding Marilyn Acetate’, 1964 - WILLIAM JOHN KENNEDY (WJK)

Andy Warhol holding an unrolled acetate of “Marilyn” in the Factory, New York City

Silver Gelatin Fiber print
75 x 105 cm

FRAMED
98 x 129 x 3 cm

Seen in the foyer of The Andy WARHOL MUSEUM (Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh)

HOMAGE TO WARHOL’S MARILYN, 1964

This portrait by WILLIAM JOHN KENNEDY was shot in early 1964 on his very first photo session with ANDY WARHOL at the FACTORY on East 47th Street.

Kennedy recalls,
“I was looking for the best possible place to photograph Andy and discovered the natural light streaming through the open re exit door. Among the clutter was a thick roll of large plastic sheets leaning nearby, I asked about them.”

Warhol replied,
“These are the acetates used in my silkscreens.”

Kennedy continues,
“Andy stood in the doorway of the re escape as he peeled of the first one from the roll and held it before him with the light flooding through the image—it was Marilyn Monroe. As Andy peered through, I immediately captured the moment.”

As Kennedy and Warhol spoke about the late star, Kennedy came to feel that Marilyn personified for Warhol the dual nature of celebrity, embracing both glamour and tragedy.

The resulting photograph is an aesthetically engaging and complex visual composition in which Kennedy physically integrates the artist with his work. The image is also a thought-provoking and revealing portrait of the artist’s conflicted and brilliant personality—one which Warhol carefully protected from the public eye throughout his lifetime by developing a deliberate public persona of studied detachment and aloofness. In this image, is Warhol hiding behind Monroe’s beauty or showing o his genius, like a giddy child, for having chosen her as a subject?
Very self-conscious about his physical shortcomings—skin conditions, premature baldness, an inelegant proboscis and maladies too personal to mention in polite society—Warhol admired the beauty of Hollywood stars. Soon after Monroe’s shocking death in 1962, he created portraits of the tragic actress which are considered to be among his best known and most iconic works.

Warhol would return to Marilyn’s image repeatedly over the following decades in several series of prints and paintings. The acetate he holds in this photo is from the 1964 series of large square canvases, each measuring 40 inches. The paintings in this group of just five works are perhaps Warhol’s most spectacularly beautiful.

Matt Wrbican, Chief Archivist - The Andy Warhol Museum