Andy Warhol’s Shot Marilyns series depicts Marilyn Monroe.
Warhol based the images on a publicity photograph of Monroe from the 1953 film Niagara. He repeated and recolored her face in the manner associated with his silkscreen portraits, turning a movie-star publicity image into a meditation on fame, repetition, and mass reproduction.
The series received its name after an incident at Warhol’s studio in 1964, when performance artist Dorothy Podber shot a stack of Marilyn paintings with a firearm. Podber had reportedly asked whether she could “shoot” them, and Warhol understood the request literally as permission to photograph them.
The episode damaged some canvases and contributed to the memorable title. Shot Marilyns is distinct from Marilyn Diptych, another major Warhol work based on Monroe.