The Shot Marilyns are a series of five 1964 silkscreen paintings by American artist Andy Warhol depicting actress Marilyn Monroe. Based on a publicity photograph from the 1953 film Niagara taken by Gene Kornman, the paintings feature Monroe's portrait rendered in different color combinations and backgrounds.

The paintings acquired their collective title after performance artist Dorothy Podber fired a revolver through a stack of four of the canvases at Warhol's Factory studio in 1964. Although the damaged works were repaired, the incident permanently altered their history and contributed to their fame. The Shot Marilyns are among Warhol's most celebrated works and include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold, notably Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, which sold for $195 million in 2022, setting a record for the most expensive artwork by an American artist at auction.

Pop artist Andy Warhol had a fascination with Hollywood and fame since childhood. A legend of the silver screen, Marilyn Monroe is widely considered to be the epitome of Hollywood glamor. After her death at the age of 36 in August 1962, Warhol began immortalizing her in his work.

In 1964, Warhol revisited his recurring image of actress Marilyn Monroe in a series of large silkscreen portraits that later became known as the Shot Marilyns. Based on the same publicity still from the 1953 film Niagara photographed by Gene Kornman, the paintings continued Warhol's exploration of celebrity, repetition, and mass-media imagery that had defined his earlier Marilyn works from 1962, including Gold Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Diptych, and Flavor Marilyns. Their title originated later that year when performance artist Dorothy Podber visited Warhol's Factory studio and fired a revolver through a stack of the paintings.

The series consists of five 40-inch square canvases, each distinguished by different color combinations and backgrounds: red, orange, light blue, sage blue, and turquoise. The Shot Marilyns differed from the earlier Flavor Marilyns (1962) in both scale and execution, featuring larger canvases, more luminous colors, and a more polished silkscreen technique that reflected Warhol's increasing mastery of the medium.

Although the sage blue and turquoise canvases share a similar blue-green background, the two paintings differ in their treatment of Monroe's facial features and color palette. In Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, Monroe's face is rendered in a vivid pink hue that heightens the artificiality of the image, while her earrings are painted the same sage color as the background, causing them to blend into the composition. By contrast, Turquoise Marilyn features a lighter, more naturalistic flesh tone and pink earrings that stand out against the turquoise backdrop. These subtle variations demonstrate Warhol's practice of altering color relationships within otherwise identical compositions.

During a visit to the Factory in the fall of 1964, performance artist Dorothy Podber arrived at the Factory accompanied by two friends and her Great Dane. Pobear was a former neighbor of Factory photographer Billy Name on the Lower East Side. Spotting a stack of newly completed Marilyn canvases leaning against a wall, Podber asked Warhol if she could "shoot" them. Believing she meant to photograph them, Warhol agreed. Podber then removed her gloves, drew a small pistol from her handbag, and fired a single shot through the stack of paintings, striking Monroe "right between the eyes," according to Name.

The incident reportedly shocked Warhol, who was visibly upset by the shooting, and Podber was thenceforth barred from the Factory for life. Although the damaged canvases were later repaired, the event permanently altered their history and gave rise to the collective title Shot Marilyns. Four of the five paintings were struck by the bullet, while a fifth canvas with the turquoise background was not damaged because it was not part of the stack. The mark of the bullet is still faintly visible, despite Warhol's best efforts to repair it. The paintings were therefore retitled Shot Light Blue Marilyn, Shot Orange Marilyn, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, and Shot Red Marilyn.