The artist Alexis Smith, known for her collages and installations, has died aged 74. She was born Patti Anne Smith, and grew up in the grounds of a California mental hospital where her father was a psychiatrist. She later changed her name to Alexis, after Hollywood actress Alexis Smith.
In 1985, Smith unveiled a large-scale painting of Marilyn, entitled ‘Men Seldom Make Passes at Girls Who Wear Glasses.’ This two-line poem by Dorothy Parker was paraphrased by Marilyn in a scene from to Marry a Millionaire (‘Men don’t pay attention to girls who wear glasses.’)
The combination of scarf and glasses also recalls Marilyn’s offscreen attire during a trip to Florida in 1961, as she watched ex-husband Joe DiMaggio coaching a baseball team. In Smith’s portrait, the glasses are overlaid onto Marilyn’s face, with images of football players, Monroesque lip-prints and Parker’s original text collaged onto each lens.
Also from 1985 is ‘Niagara,’ a two-tone granite headstone with an etching of Marilyn’s hair cascading into the Falls, inspired by the trailer and posters for the 1953 movie.
Another of Smith’s Monroe-inspired works, ‘Chandlerism #104’, combined a line from one of Raymond Chandler’s LA detective stories with a photo of Marilyn drinking champagne on a balcony, taken by George Barris in 1962. The text reads thus: ‘She handed me the glass. Bubbles rose in it like false hopes. “To all the dumb dreams that never happen.”‘
Alexis Smith, who had been living with Alzheimer’s Disease for several years, is survived by her husband, fellow artist Scott Grieger.
The Marilyn Report 