Marilyn is featured in the latest edition of UK street newspaper The Big Issue (#1716, dated May 4-10), as one of several notable people born a century ago this year – including Miles Davis, Mel Brooks, and cover star David Attenborough.
Inside, Rosie Broadley – senior curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London – explains what images can tell us about Marilyn’s life and legacy.
“As photographer Bert Stern observed soon after her death: ‘She is gone but she is everywhere.’ The question of why she remains so compelling is one I have spent years thinking about … Monroe created and honed her own public image and welcomed the creativity of her collaborators, while privately devoting herself to self-improvement … She read widely, studied her craft, engaged with political issues and challenged the systems of 1950s Hollywood and society. She acknowledged the importance of her loyal fans above all else.
What I most want visitors to understand is the extent to which Monroe was an active participant in making her own image. Eve Arnold, who photographed her on numerous occasions, described her as unrivalled as a photographic subject … Richard Avedon recalled that Monroe would pore over contact sheets for hours, always looking for what she called an ‘honest’ picture. She not only performed but directed sessions and claimed the right to veto images she did not like.
The vitality that Monroe conveyed in photographs was frequently at odds with her personal situation. Her sex appeal was both her super-power and her burden. She observed ‘Men don’t see me, they lay their eyes on me,’ understanding acutely the ‘male gaze’ (though that concept would not be articulated until more than a decade later by theorist and film-maker Laura Mulvey).
The shock of her death in 1962, aged just 36, compelled artists on both sides of the Atlantic to respond … The artistic conversation has never stopped, with Monroe’s image continuing to offer new possibilities as an emblem of celebrity, consumerism, sex and gender politics … As the painter Audrey Flack identified, Monroe ‘exposed a humanness with which we all identified’. A century on, that endures.”
Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, on display at the National Portrait Gallery from June 4 – September 6, is also featured in the latest issue of Yours Retro (#100, with Doris Day on the cover.)
And finally, Yours Retro and sister publication Yours have teamed up for a limited edition ‘bookazine’, Marilyn: A Celebration.
“Tragic Norma Jeane Mortenson was born 100 years ago. As Marilyn Monroe, she became a global symbol of beauty and glamour and, although she died more than 60 years ago, there are few people who wouldn’t instantly recognise the blonde bombshell.
Her story, from humble beginnings in and out of foster homes to her tragic death, continues to captivate us all. This beautifully presented celebration explores both her catalogue of work and her troubled life.
Alongside behind-the-scenes insights from all her films, we look at the childhood experiences that helped shape her personality, the relationships that sustained her – and those that crushed her.
Packed with stunning, rarely seen photography, we also explore Marilyn’s continuing influence and why she remains a much-loved icon.”
The Marilyn Report 