Russell Young Marilyn Crying - New York For Sale

Marilyn Crying

Marilyn Crying is Russell Young's most celebrated body of work and one of the defining images of twenty-first century Pop Art. First created in 2005, the series is built around a single candid press photograph taken by photojournalist George Silk in 1954, capturing Marilyn Monroe outside her Hollywood home during the press conference at which she announced her divorce from baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. Rather than reaching for one of the thousands of glamour shots that define Monroe's public image, Young selected the one moment that punctures it entirely — grief, unguarded and real, on the face of the most photographed woman of the twentieth century.

Rendered through Young's signature technique of acrylic, enamel, and hand-applied diamond dust screenprinted onto linen, each Marilyn Crying work transforms Silk's photograph into a shimmering, jewel-like surface that shifts with the light. The crystalline coating — a technique Young began developing around 2007, pressing individual crystals into the enamel by hand so that no two works are ever identical — turns grief into glamour and back again, holding both readings in permanent tension. The series has been produced across dozens of colorways over two decades, from stark black-and-white to electric pink, gold, and blue, each variant recasting the same fixed image through a different emotional and visual register.

Marilyn Crying occupies a singular place in Young's practice and in the broader market for contemporary portraiture: it is simultaneously his most collected image and his most personal statement about the price of fame. Collectors consistently seek out specific colorways and formats, from the large-format 70-inch canvases to smaller intimate studies, with unique 1/1 impressions commanding particular premiums given that every diamond dust surface is irreproducible.

Guy Hepner holds one of the most extensive collections of Marilyn Crying works for sale anywhere, spanning multiple colorways, scales, and years of production. Collectors looking to buy a Marilyn Crying canvas, compare available colorways, or sell an existing work are welcome to contact our New York gallery to discuss current inventory and pricing.