Marilyn Monoprint
Printing Process Video
December 31, 2015
This video demonstrates how involved, intense and beautiful the mono print and Marilyn screen printing processes are and why the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum recently acquired Flavor Paper’s “Marilyn Monoprint” wallpaper from our second collection with the Warhol Foundation.
Inspired by Monroe paintings from Andy Warhol’s “Reversals” series, we reinterpreted the hand painted and silk-screened artwork, originally derived from a publicity photo of Monroe from the 1953 film Niagra, as a hand screen-printed wallpaper. But it is Flavor Paper’s mono print technique of painting directly to the silk screen, then printing that screen, which creates one-of-a-impressions in each repeat and adds incredible visual texture. We typically have 4-6 people painting and printing the Marilyn Monoprints versus 2 people on any other wallpaper print. We use different brushes, spray bottles, pallet knives and squeegees to create the blends and textures and then print that screen on a Chrome Mylar using opaque, transparent, Day Glo and metallic inks which give it a great deal of depth and variety. Marilyn’s inverse is the then printed on top which covers most of the background. Stylistically, it is very similar to how Warhol would have created a painting and screen print back in the day, but at a much greater scale, in repeat and entirely as a screen print.
Footage by Boone Speed, Christine Bailey Speed, and Mike Call who also edited the piece
