The figure of Marilyn Monroe comes to life through an unpublished collection of personal letters and hundreds of original objects in an exhibition for the centennial of her birth that reveals how one of Hollywood’ s most magnetic stars shaped her image with pieces that have gone down in film history.
Marylin Monroe: Hollywood Icon’ shows from this Sunday at the Museum of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles a journey that transcends her myth of ‘sex symbol’ in the seventh art to explore the psyche of Norma Jean.
Monroe “was a complex woman and loved reading, art, film, and I think she was a really creative artist. I hope these objects tell the story of how she was shaping that public image,” Sophia Serrano, associate curator at the Museum of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, told EFE.
An unpublished archive of Marilyn Monroe with this exhibition
The exhibit features a display of notes written in her handwriting in the margins of her screenplays, books from her personal library, makeup preserved as she left it, as well as the closet that defined the Hollywood star, such as the iconic pink dress from 1953’s ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’.
The selection also includes hundreds of items that the performer herself treasured, from correspondence, contracts that marked her destiny, daily receipts and scraps of newspapers that spoke of her impact on the industry in her golden age.
“Marilyn kept everything and really held on to a lot of her belongings. So we really had quite a bit to choose from in how we were going to shape and tell her story,” added Serrano.
The preservation of some of her most intimate belongings, hitherto unknown to the public, allows us to reconstruct a life that was not easy and that she herself was responsible for recording until her untimely death on August 4, 1962, at the age of 36.
The exhibition is organized thematically so that the objects are in dialogue with each other, “All these pieces manage to tell a story about who Marilyn was, not so much Marilyn, but rather Norma Jeane,” said the curator.
“Monroe’s life and her prolific creative output have remained an inexhaustible and continuing source of fascination, inspiration and devotion to this day,” said Amy Homma, Director and President of the Museum of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, during the presentation of the event.
Among the costumes on display are items donated by private collectors who have guarded this heritage for decades, such as those she used in films like ‘Niagara’ or ‘Bus Stop’ (‘I was never a saint’), as well as haute couture designs that she wore to premieres and industry events, many of them signed by her head designer, William Travilla.
These garments not only represent the style of the era, but are also part of the living testimony of the high points of his career.
“Many of the costumes were worn in the 1950s needed a lot of repairs, so we work very hard to provide for their preservation. We have to re-stitch, rejoin the seams, which is great to share with the public, but it’s also part of the task of preserving Marylin’s legacy,” concluded Serrano, reported Agencia EFE.
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