Marilyn Monroe: Icon is now open at Iconic Images Gallery in London’s Piccadilly. Although on a much smaller scale than the current National Portrait Gallery retrospective, this display is free to view, with prints available for order. (Incidentally, Iconic Images is part of the Authentic Brands portfolio, alongside Marilyn’s estate.)
“Perhaps no major twentieth-century figure has been photographed, interpreted and mythologised as extensively as Marilyn Monroe. As we celebrate the centenary of her birth, her image continues to occupy a singular place in the collective imagination, suspended between Hollywood construction and personal vulnerability, celebrity and self-invention. Bringing together works by photographers including Eve Arnold, Sam Shaw, Allan Grant and more, this exhibition traces some of the most enduring visual representations of Monroe across studio portraiture, reportage and candid photography. The exhibition also considers Monroe’s continuing afterlife within contemporary and post-war art. Included is work by James Francis Gill, one of the earliest figures associated with American Pop Art, whose first Marilyn Triptych entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in 1962 shortly after Monroe’s death. Displayed alongside this is work by Bambi, whose practice refracts cultural icons through the visual language of contemporary street art.”
Photographs by Sam Shaw, Eve Arnold, and Allan Grant on display at Iconic Images Gallery.
Images by Milton Greene, Douglas Kirkland and George Barris are also part of the Iconic collection.
The artwork includes ‘Something’s Got to Give,’ Robert Risko’s 1992 caricature for TIME magazine; and a more recent portrait by fashion illustrator David Downton.
Also in 1992, Ian Rankin photographed musician Richey Edwards (Manic Street Preachers) with multiple images of Marilyn ink-stamped on his chest. Contemporary artist San B has recreated the famous 1953 image of Marilyn in her gold lamé dress, using over 150,000 hand-placed Swarovski crystals.
Texas- born James Francis Gill – one of the original Pop artists – and London street artist Bambi unveiled new works inspired by Allan Grant’s previously unseen images from Marilyn’s final LIFE magazine interview.
Michael Arnold and Melissa Stevens – grandchildren and archivists to photographers Eve Arnold and Sam Shaw – were invited to the launch party on June 1st (Marilyn’s 100th birthday), which Terry Newman, author of Marilyn Monroe Style, also attended.
And finally, three more writers joined a panel discussion, ‘Reading Marilyn,’ at Iconic Images Gallery on June 4th. Using a great deal of creative license, Lynn Cullen reimagines Marilyn’s friendship with Eve Arnold in her novel, When We Were Brilliant. She is pictured alongside Marilyn’s latest biographer, Andrew Wilson (I Wanna Be Loved By You); and literary critic Gail Crowther (Marilyn and Her Books.)
The Marilyn Report 