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Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych  1962

In August 1962, Andy Warhol started experimenting with screenprints in his New York studio. When the actor Marilyn Monroe died the same month, Warhol was shocked by her death. He found a publicity photo of Monroe from the 1953 film Niagara, taken by the photographer Gene Kornman. Cropping her face, Warhol made a series of graphic screenprints based on the portrait. He painted over some of them by hand, then reprinted Monroe’s face on top of the colour. Originally two separate pieces, Marilyn Diptych was first purchased by art collectors Burton and Emily Tremaine. Together, the mask-like depictions of Monroe could hint at the experiences of a life led inside and outside the celebrity spotlight.

Gallery label, April 2025

Giacomo Balla, Abstract Speed - The Car has Passed  1913

Ballà was a leading figure in the Italian Futurist group. He believed that the power and speed of machines such as cars were the salient characteristics of the modern age and aimed to express this idea in his work. This painting was originally the right-hand part part of a triptych. The left-hand part of the triptych was called 'Line of Force Landscape' and the central one 'Lines of Force Noise'. The theme of the triptych was the passage of a car along a white road, with green and blue forms, evoking earth and sky, in the background. The pinkish areas in this painting suggest the exhaust fumes left by the passing car.

Gallery label, September 2004

Andra Ursuţa, Predators ‘R Us  2020

El Lissitzky, 2. The Announcer  1923

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space  1913, cast 1972

In the early years of the twentieth century, industrialisation swept across Italy. The futurist movement was founded by writers and artists like Umberto Boccioni, who enthused about new inventions such as cars and electricity. In Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, the figure is aerodynamically deformed by speed. Boccioni exaggerated the body’s dynamism so that it embodied the urge towards progress. The sculpture may reflect ideas of the mechanised body that appeared in futurist writings, as well as the ‘superman’ envisaged by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Gallery label, February 2016

El Lissitzky, 3. Sentry  1923

El Lissitzky, 4. Anxious People  1923

El Lissitzky, 5. Globetrotter (in Time)  1923

El Lissitzky, 1. Part of the Show Machinery  1923

Wyndham Lewis, Composition  1913

At first glance Composition presents a compressed series of mechanical forms and abstract references to the modern city. However, it is possible to recognise traces of human figures. Dynamic thrusting shapes rise from the lower left but are contained within a claustrophobic, abstract environment. These forms can be seen as a dancing couple. The woman, on the right, bends backwards. The white parallelogram halfway up the right edge is perhaps her hair. The pleated curving architectural form at the bottom centre could be her skirt.

Gallery label, October 2020