(York 1959–lives and works in California)

Marilyn Hope. 2014.

Colour serigraph, acrylic and diamond powder on canvas.

Signed, dated, titled and described on the reverse: Russell Young 2014 Marilyn Hope DX 2014 Persian rose + black.

160 x 120 cm.

Provenance: Private collection USA.

Born in 1959, Russell Young began his artistic career as a photographer, having studied graphic design, drawing and photography at Chester Art College and Exeter College of Art in England. He lived first in London where he photographed the night life of musicians. In 1986 he was commissioned to do the iconic cover image for George Michael’s album “Faith”, which then opened the way for him to concentrate on the portrait photography of young celebrities and brought him to Los Angeles.
In the course of the 1990s Russell Young began painting and moved to New York, since the hectic life of editorial photographer no longer met his creative needs.

From 2003 he began to receive international recognition as a painter with his “Pig Portraits”, which show police photographs of stars, as well as the series “Dirty Little Things” from 2010, which deals with the phenomenon of the stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Curt Cobain, Brigitte Bardot, Barak Obama and James Dean.

The artist takes the well-known symbol of Marilyn Monroe, intensified with the glamourous layer of diamond powder, which is intermixed with his pop culture, and thereby creates a celebration of the power of the stars within Western culture. He adds saturated acrylic colours to the colour silk screens printed on canvas, which makes his motifs appear somewhat stronger and grainier. The Marilyn Monroe series includes six different portrait shots, each mostly prepared in an edition of 10 and in different colour combinations: “Marilyn Goddess”, “Marilyn Crying”, “Marilyn Portrait”, “Marilyn Glamour”, “Marilyn Superstar” and the present image “Marilyn Hope” in Persian Rose and black.