A painting by American Pop Art star Andy Warhol, « Orange Marilyn » was sold by Sotheby's for a record US $ 17,3 million in New York on May 15th 1998. This record price for Warhol was over three times more expensive than the previous one for a painting of the same series of five, titled «Shot Red Marilyn» which went for US $ 4 million at Christie's in 1989. The question is now whether such painting, in fact produced via a photographic transfer of the famous actress' image on the canvas, deserved such an incredible price. Warhol is a legend in the history of Pop Art but in a few decades the artist might well be considered as an inventive advertising designer who simply used images of his time to make them pass as works of art. Warhol was provocative enough to induce a large fringe of the New York society to believe he was a great artist. His main idea was to divert those products which were part of the American daily life - the Campbell's Soup can, the Coca Cola bottle among others- and those images of celebrities - Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Kennedy and so on- to introduce them into a new form of art based on marketing and consumerism. Many art critics in the U.S consider Warhol as genuine artist who gave great impetus to art. However, Warhol is not always regarded as a true painter in other parts of the world for the simple reason that consumable goods, even placed in a new context, cannot be viewed as art objects. In Warhol's mind everything could be seen as having a relationship to art. Therefore a Coca Cola bottle was art in itself as was any object created by a designer. Nevertheless, Warhol did not create that bottle nor the image of Presley or Marilyn. He just interpreted them at will, multiplying the bottle, using photos to paint his works, adding to his subjects aggressive colours which were in tune with the explosive trends of the 1970's. This kind of adaptation worked marvellously well in the U.S where Warhol was considered as a genius whereas he was held in suspicion of being a kind of impostor abroad. The fact that the U.S imposed its style of living almost everywhere in the world however strengthened Warhol's status to a great extent. Still, it remains to be asked whether he could be compared to Picasso, Braque and even some other American artists like Mark Rothko or Jasper Johns. Warhol had his statue erected by the sole New York intelligentsia which successfully controlled contemporary art through certain influential gallery owners, notably Leo Castelli and one cannot speak of a mere theory since no single foreign artist, Lucian Freud excepted, can sell his works over US $ 1 million nowadays.
In this respect, the sum of US $ 17,3 million paid for «Orange Marilyn» was certainly excessive, notwithstanding the fact that the works of certain old masters deserve a much better treatment in auction sales as it seems unfair to see Warhol placed in the price record list much ahead of such great artists as Titian, Rubens, de La Tour, Chardin, Gainsborough, Turner and even Rembrandt. It will be probably difficult to explain the reason for such price. Was it in great part because of Marilyn Monroe's mythical aura or the Warhol-Marilyn combination ?
Still this seems to be tantamount to sheer madness on the part of the buyer. For example had princess Diana been a keen painter one of her works would have probably reached an incredible result at auction but that would not have transformed her into a great artist in her own right. Adrian Darmon
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