The pop icon who redefined art and market value
Warhol’s iconic portraits: from Marilyn Monroe to Mao Zedong
By Léa Nedwed
A dominant force in the art market, Andy Warhol racks up records on the global stage. His most iconic paintings, now cultural touchstones, fetch sky-high prices at auction, making him one of the best-selling artists in history. Equally notable is Warhol’s impressive sales volume, which rivals Picasso’s – a testament to his extensive output across a broad range of mediums, and, by extension, price points.
Like all truly enduring artists, Warhol cultivated an instantly recognisable style. But more than that, his most iconic works have become so deeply ingrained in our visual culture that his distinctive aesthetic is readily identifiable to virtually anyone who comes across it today.
Known as the “Pope of Pop Art”, Warhol is widely regarded as the preeminent American painter of the modern era and even as one of the two defining figures of 20th-century Western art, alongside, once more, Pablo Picasso. Shaped by the rise of consumerism and postwar industrial expansion, Warhol’s best-known works elevated the banal imagery of popular culture to the status of high art, overturning well-established conventions in the process.
In perfect harmony with this shifting social and economic landscape, Warhol employed a mechanised approach inspired by mass production to create his works. Through various printing techniques, Warhol was not only able to replicate his motifs but also distance himself from the act of creation, imbuing his work with a deliberate sense of detachment. This way, he established a new standard for the role of the artist—one that continues to develop and influence the art world today, from Damien Hirst to Jeff Koons’ factory-like production.
Warhol explored silkscreen printing techniques, frequently layering printed motifs over hand-painted backgrounds. He experimented with variations in colour and repetition, creating entire series of unique artworks around a single subject.
Warhol’s fascination soon gravitated toward movie stars—true pop icons—with Marilyn Monroe at its zenith. He also turned his focus to public figures like Jackie Kennedy and even Mao Zedong, exploring the media-driven narratives that surrounded them. In hindsight, Warhol’s work anticipated the media’s expanding influence on culture—shaping public visibility, fueling consumerism, and transforming celebrity into a product for mass consumption.
For more than three decades, Warhol’s auction records have been driven by his most iconic portraits. In 1989, a 1964 Marilyn against a red background commanded $4 million, setting a new high for the artist at auction. Since then, Warhol’s top record has been eclipsed six times, with standout works featuring Marilyn Monroe, Mao Zedong, and even the darkly resonant Car Crash series. The current record-holder—a 1964 Marilyn on a blue background—achieved an astonishing $195 million in 2022, securing its place as the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, behind Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi.
The journey to Warhol’s nine-figure auction record has been marked by a steady stream of high-priced sales in the $10 million-plus range. Since 1998, an impressive 60 lots have crossed the $17 million threshold, with 18 fetching over $40 million. This trajectory reflects the robust confidence in Warhol’s market over the years.
Returning to Warhol’s portrayals of Marilyn and Mao, the highest auction sales were recorded for his historic 1960s depictions of the Hollywood icon and the inaugural "early Mao" portraits from 1972. According to ArtExplored’s data, these iconic Marilyns amassed $443.6 million ($532.1 million adjusted for inflation) from 12 lots sold at auction between 2004 and 2023. By contrast, the early Maos generated a total of $97.3 million ($128.7 million adjusted for inflation) from only 3 sales. Their average sales prices are virtually neck-and-neck at $44.3 million for iconic Marilyns versus $42.9 million for early Maos (inflation-adjusted).
A closer look at these sales reveals that five Marilyns were resold during this period, averaging CAGR of 14.2% (11.8% adjusted), while the sole early Mao resale outperformed with a striking 21.7% CAGR (19.2% adjusted).
Though Marilyn remains the definitive icon of Warhol’s portraits—her image appearing in his work from 1962, shortly after her tragic death, until the end of his life—the Mao series marks a critical turning point. It signals Warhol’s renewed commitment to painting, emerging after a four-year hiatus following a near-fatal shooting. The early Maos, created in 1972, were his first noncommissioned paintings since the incident, featuring a curious choice of subject that appears to oscillate between celebration and critique. Bridging two distinct periods in Warhol’s career, they formally recall his early portraits of film stars while introducing a new painterly technique that anticipates the evolution of his later work. Unconventionally, Warhol produced the early Maos entirely on his own, using an exceptionally large screen to print the two-meter-tall figures, without his assistants’ usual help. In another departure from his typical methods, Warhol applied the paint afterward, employing gestural brushstrokes that starkly contrasted the mechanical precision of his earlier Pop aesthetic.
Throughout his prolific career, Warhol constantly reinvented himself, yet he remained an enigmatic figure—an aspect he skillfully exploited. This mystique, along with his unique persona, undoubtedly played a significant role in the market success of his unconventional work.
The information in this article has been analysed by ArtExplored and is based on proprietary data.
