After her sudden death in August 1962, Marilyn Monroe's life and career became a worldwide obsession. Warhol, being infatuated with fame and pop culture, obtained a black-and-white publicity photo of her, taken in 1953 for her film Niagara, and used the photo to create several series of images. Each Marilyn work was an experiment of dramatically shifting colors and shadow. With the help of his assistants, and the printing technique used, Warhol was able to recreate images such as this at a fast rate. Marilyn is an example of the successful evolution of Warhol's goal of erasing signs of the artist's hand from the production process.