Will Andy Warhol’s blue Marilyn become the most expensive work of art of the 20th century? The iconic 1964 painting has just been estimated at $200 million by auction house Christies. Since then, the art market has been squirming with impatience while waiting for the sale. If it were indeed sold at this price, Warhol’s Marilyn would become the most expensive work of art of the last century, dethroning the title holder, Pablo Picasso. A real revenge for the work of Andy Warhol, who struggled to be considered as an artist in his own right in his early days. Where others made the complexity and rarity of their work a guarantee of quality, Andy Warhol exploded all the codes by working on simple subjects, declined to infinity thanks to screen printing. Andy Warhol started from a photo – which he hadn’t even taken himself most of the time – made a stencil of it which he reproduced on a canvas by successively applying colors. All in a process that can be reproduced at will, without limit. So not really the image we had, at the time, of a unique work of art. Yet Andy Warhol has become one of the most famous artists in the world. Everyone has already seen his works, his portraits of famous personalities or his cult cans of canned soup. Time has passed, the art world has opened up to other styles, other expressions, Andy Warhol has carved out an eternal place for himself.
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