Kagan, J., dissenting
to function as a selectively porous mesh. Warhol would “place the screen face down on the canvas, pour ink onto the back of the mesh, and use a squeegee to pull the ink through the weave and onto the canvas.” Id., at 164. On some of his Marilyns (there are many), he reordered the process—first ink, then color, then (perhaps) ink again. See id., at 165–166. The result—see for yourself—is miles away from a literal copy of the publicity photo.
Andy Warhol, Marilyn, 1964, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen
And the meaning is different from any the photo had. Of course, meaning in great art is contestable and contested (as is the premise that an artwork is great). But note what some experts say about the complex message(s) Warhol’s Marilyns convey. On one level, those vivid, larger-than-life paintings are celebrity iconography, making a “secular, profane subject[]” “transcendent” and “eternal.” Id., at 209 (internal quotation marks omitted). But they also function as a biting critique of the cult of celebrity, and the role it plays
