Pop Art Pioneer James Francis Gill on the Unseen Side of Marilyn Monroe
Pop art pioneer James Francis Gill has revealed a side of Marilyn Monroe that he says “not a lot of people know,” following the creation of his famous Marilyn Triptych artwork. The 92-year-old American artist rose to prominence in 1962 when his piece depicting the iconic actress was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), just months after Monroe died at age 36 from a barbiturate overdose.
Gill was inspired to paint the starlet after seeing what would become her final interview in Life magazine. The resulting artwork, which portrays Monroe in three parts, captures her vulnerability through a series of haunting poses. Speaking to the Press Association, Gill said: “I have just always really loved that kind of innocent side of Marilyn, and I have done a lot of rejecting of the bad stories people can say about her. She was incredible – look what she did with her life after where she came from. She achieved so much in such a short life.”
The painting is now part of the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, which explores the actress’s life, career, and legacy on the 100th anniversary of her birth. Shortly after MoMA acquired Gill’s work, he was inundated with calls from producers and “big movie stars” who wanted to dine with him. “So, I became friends with a lot of people that knew her, so I know a side of Marilyn that a lot of people do not,” he said. “That was really heavy duty for a guy from Texas.”
After the painting was shipped to New York in the 1960s, Gill did not see it for “another 30 or so years” until he finally visited the gallery. Seeing it hanging at the National Portrait Gallery was equally overwhelming. “It was incredible, because I have never really seen it in exhibition, even though it has been in a lot of other exhibitions, I never saw it hanging like that. It is one of those goodies that stands the test of time,” he said.
Alongside Andy Warhol, Gill is credited as a pioneer of the pop art movement, a title he still finds hard to accept. “Well, I was not planning on being an artist – I just wanted to be a cowboy! But I painted from when I was about five years old and even though I was not really interested in being an artist, it was always there,” he said.
While Marilyn Triptych is on display at the National Portrait Gallery, a full exhibition of Gill’s work is running concurrently at Castle Fine Art Covent Garden, featuring key pieces from his collection beyond his seminal work. Preparing for this exhibition, Gill discovered “half-finished” pieces of Monroe and is now considering completing them.
With a career spanning decades, Gill remains unfazed by the impact of AI on artists. “You know I have thought about it a lot, because AI is heavy duty, but what I have noticed is that AI cannot do what I do. No, not at all. And so it is just up to maybe galleries, dealers, reporters that point out that AI is incredible, but Jim Gill is way better,” he declared.
Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait is on at the National Portrait Gallery until September 6. Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait – A Defining Moment for James Francis Gill is at Castle Fine Art Covent Garden until June 14.
