HELLO, NORMA JEAN
A new round of exhibitions show that even 50 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe’s appeal is stronger than ever.
Two new exhibitions celebrate the headline-grabbing life of Hollywood goddess Marilyn Monroe
MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY after the death of Marilyn Monroe, you’d think interest in the late star would be limited to senior citizens. After all, in the chronology of 20th- century celebrity, she was buried a month after the Rolling Stones debuted at the Marquee Club in London in 1962, and more than three decades before Justin Bieber was born. Indeed, what digital native would know or even care about the narrative that is Norma Jeane Mortenson — the unloved child (fostered by 11 different families) who name-changed into the world’s biggest star before dying from a barbiturate overdose at the age of 36? Well, if Facebook is any flag of her contemporary currency, then Marilyn, who boasts a 14 million-plus following from beyond the grave, claims seven times the ‘ likes’ of Hollywood’s reigning sex symbol, Angelina Jolie Pitt. And if earning capacity in the afterlife is any measure of commercial stature, then the US$17 million bagged in branding agreements by her estate last year says that Marilyn is a still a major influencer. (She was, for example, digitally revived, and her estate richly reimbursed, for an appearance in a 2011 Dior J’Adore advertisement). But perhaps it’s the audience numbers flocking to the current crop of international exhibitions, the content of which explores her ‘cultural phenomenon’, that provides real context for her enduring relevance. Life as a Legend: Marilyn Monroe — the touring show that captured Marilyn’s spark through the art of Andy Warhol, Allen Jones, Peter Blake, Richard Avedon, Bert Stern, Henri Cartier-Bresson and many others — broke attendance records at nearly every museum in which it has been shown. These facts were not lost on the directors of the new Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) in New South Wales when they went in search of a blockbuster befitting the gallery’s redevelopment. They knew that improved cultural infrastructure, combined with the cult of celebrity and a radical rethink of curatorial practice, could boost a regional economy — so Grace Kelly: Style Icon at Victoria’s Bendigo Art Gallery had proved in 2012, injecting $17 million into local coffers in a three-month period. MAMA needed the Kelly effect — another beautiful blonde with an unhappy ending — to draw crowds as far as Albury. Marilyn: Celebrating an American Icon (based on Life as a Legend) will form the core of a wider exhibition that has mined Monroe-inflected fashion, furniture and fine-art, from public and private collections around Australia. “Lots of cups of tea were had over the question of Marilyn’s enduring appeal and her proto-feminism,” says curator Bianca Acimovic, sidestepping the cliché of ageless beauty while arguing that the star cleverly used her sex appeal to subvert an oppressive Hollywood patriarchy. “There are so many different perceptions. But we all agreed that she is representative of an image that is no longer present in pop culture — just compare her to the Kardashians; they are not on the same plane for class, style or mystique.” Nor do they incite the same passion, adds MAMA director Jacqui Hemsley, qualifying that Western culture was perhaps a little more innocent back then. “Now it’s all about the brand.” Yes, the Henri Cartier-Bresson images of Marilyn on the set of The Misfits frame an ill-fated collaboration with her playwright husband, Arthur Miller, not a licensing commitment. But a full suite of screen prints by Warhol, also featured in the show, pre- empts the coming avalanche of consumerism — an appropriated image of the star mass-produced like a soup can into iconicity. While MAMA makes the most of Marilyn behind the camera, Bendigo Art Gallery will follow with a full cinemascope of her celebrity in Marilyn Monroe, an exhibition that draws from the archives of 20th Century Fox. More than 20 original film costumes and personal effects — including the William Travilla white dress worn over the subway grate in The Seven Year Itch — will come together in a collection that gallery director Karen Quinlan declares “the closest we can get to the real person”. And getting close to the real person reminds us that fame is a Faustian bargain, a pact Marilyn made with the unwitting words: “A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe, and leaves before she is left.” VL Marilyn: Celebrating an American Icon runs 12 February–8 May at Murray Art Museum Albury; mamalbury.com.au. Marilyn Monroe runs 5 March–10 July at Bendigo Art Gallery; bendigoartgallery.com.au.
“Marilyn is representative of an image that is no longer present in pop culture”