This Wednesday I took a trip to the Chicago Cultural Center to see the Marilyn Monroe exibit. I have always been a little obsessed over Marilyn and when I found out that it only runs through September 21st I couldn't waste time. The show consisted of many different artists from around the globe. They depicted Marilyn in many different mediums and scenarios. There were many famous portrayals of her like the colorful, Andy Warhol, print of Marilyn and the photo shoots from the movie Seven Year Itch, where she stood over a vent and her skirt flew up over her head. She was shown as a suductive, sexy, bombshell that could have had any man at the snap of her fingers. This was that Marilyn that we all know and love. Her dumb blonde image has stayed with us to this day, even though it was just an image. The exibitition as reviels the real Marilyn or Norma Jean (her real name). It shows a intelligent and shy woman which was molded into her fame, yet she never thought that she would be portrayed only as a person who is beautiful on the outside. She wanted more than that. I jotted down one of her quotes that was written above her portrait, "I must drag Marilyn Monroe around with me like an albatros."
Many say that she loved the camera more than her husbands. I think that the camera loved her back just as much.
The exhibition showed a third persona of Marilyn, which was stated very dramaticly. It showed that even know Marilyn has been immortalized by all the pictures of her is just as famous as she was when she was alive, she was still only human. Many artworks showed that she was only human. That she felt pain, had emotions, and would die just like the rest of us. Two pieces caught my attention that delt with Marilyn's unexpected and untimly death. They were next to each other on the same wall. The first was entitled "Overexposed" by Christian Blau. It showed a beautiful young portiat of Marilyn on the left and a photo that was smuggled out of the morge after her autopsy on the right. The photo on the left shows the goddess at her prime, but the photo on the right brings her down to earth. It is as if you walk up from a dream and realize that things are normal again.
The other artwork which had a large impact on me was called " Marilyn's Last Portrait" It is a large slik screen print of her autoposy report shown in a bright red. The words are hard to read, but the report uses only technical terms and when you are reading it, it is just another report. No one would have guessed that this was autopsy report of a legend. This piece is the most real portrait of Marilyn Monroe, because it describes her, not as a model, actress, bombshell, sex symbol, icon, or ledgend, but as a ordinay woman.
The exibition is spectacular! Go see it if you have a chance before the 21st!
PS Will write more about this, but I left my notebook at work...
