Warhol’s Marilyn portraits exploited her death within days of the event.

Evidence

Even before Marilyn Monroe was found dead in Hollywood on August 5, 1962, James Rosenquist took her for a subject. The goddess had scarcely given up the ghost when Warhol was opportunistically silk-screening a promo portrait from the 1953 film Niagara—Marilyn’s image as image. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 408

Categorization

• CANDY: A punchy detail: Warhol started converting Marilyn’s image into art the moment she died — great trivia for a conversation.