Marilyn By Andy Whisler Essay

Whistler made deliberate artistic choices in this portrait to convey his mother’s strong sense of character. Compositional techniques pleasantly frame the figure by employing strong vertical and horizontal qualities, and by repeating the linear motif in the framed picture on the wall. Russell (2008) articulates that Whistler utilises monochromatic harmony in this portrait, injecting only slightly warmer colour to her skin tones. The use of sombre grey pallet is synonymous to mourning however; the warmer tones in her flesh suggest resilience and strength. Russell observes that Whistler indicates his mother’s aged appearance by her slumping jowls; however her face is illustrated wrinkle-free (p.6). The intentional ‘airbrushing’ of her face could be representative of admiration; or to portray his mother as relaxed, representing her …show more content…
Unlike the intimate bond between mother and son depicted in Whistler’s portrait, the relationship between Hollywood celebrity and society is structured upon false pretenses of familiarity. The Pop Art style portrait, Marilyn, by Andy Warhol 1964 (see fig 2) depicts one of the most popular sex symbols of all time, Marilyn Monroe. This serigraph technique uses simplified gradients of bright colour to generate multiple prints of the famous Monroe. Warhol made numerous portraits of Monroe after her death, choosing to reprocess famous photographs depicting her at the peak of her career (Whiting p.38). Warhol reduces the structure of the portrait to colour and black outline, similar to that of highly contrasted film grain photographs. James states