If you remember the 60s, you weren’t really there.” This famous quip says much about our rose-tinted nostalgia for the decade. The fun-loving hedonism of Woodstock and Beatlemania may be etched into our cultural memory, but Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portraits reveal a darker side to the Swinging Sixties that turns our nostalgia on its head.
Warhol’s iconic portrait Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, which is due to go on sale at Christie’s in May, is expected to fetch record-breaking bids of $200m (£153m), making it the most expensive 20th-century artwork ever auctioned. Nearly 60 years after they were first created, Warhol’s portraits of the ill-fated Hollywood star continue to fascinate us.
