Marilyn Monroe

The name, the myth, the legend. On October 27 and 28, 1999 a throng descended upon Christie’s Auction House in New York City to find, and if fortunate, to acquire a piece of their patron saint – Marilyn. Christie’s Auction House prepared and publicized the event with as much prestige as a grand master sale. Even her most insignificant possessions were bid to the stratosphere in a frenzied circus. Yona Zeldis McDonough wrote this about the Christie’s auction: “There was a black tiered makeup case. The case was loaded with the tools of her trade: lipsticks and cream eye shadows in golden tubes with elegiac names like pearly blue and autumn smoke. But these were hardly the pristine, fresh from the department store packages that we might recognize from the world of advertising. Instead, it was clear that everything had been opened, used, and even (slightly) abused. These artifacts silently attest to the unmistakable humanity of their owner. But they also remind us of the artifice-another name for magic-that she used to invent herself. Her cosmetics hold a dual meaning: they underscore her mortality while at the same time they were the very means by which she would ultimately escape it.? No one can deny that Marilyn was more than a movie star. She was a worldwide sensation in her time, but it seems close to forty years after her death, her popularity has extended beyond sensation to icon.

Marilyn Monroe after her tragic death is as remarkable now as when she was alive. Why is her image so enduring? Photography. Photographs of her are compelling not for their artistic quality but because they have an image of Marilyn. Her natural brilliance outshined any photographer’s artistic talents. Certain of these images have solidified into some of the most famous images of the Twentieth Century.