No one’s life and death has been picked apart, analysed and mythologised quite like Marilyn Monroe’s. Over 60 years after the peroxide-blonde star died at just 36 years old, her legacy continues to fascinate: Andy Warhol’s pop-art portrait of the star broke the record for the most expensive piece of artwork sold by an American artist, her custom-made crystal dress made headlines when it was worn by Kim Kardashian on the Met Gala’s red carpet and biopics and documentaries continue to try and make sense of the person behind the glamorised persona – most recently in Netflix’s widely tanked Blonde.
Now Marilyn: The Exhibition in Arches London Bridge promises to cut through the noise and reveal the ‘woman behind the myth’ with this vast display of Monroe’s personal objects. Billed as the ‘first exhibition of its kind in the UK’, it features 250 items of personal ephemera ranging from love letters to make-up and clothes from the private collection of Ted Stampfer, a German art collector who owns the world’s largest collection of Monroe’s historical objects.
After her death in 1962, Monroe left all her possessions to Lee Strasberg, owner of the Actor’s Studio in New York where she studied method acting. The pieces remained untouched until they were gradually sold off by his widow in 1999, which means you can still see her individual bleached hairs on some of the clothing and curlers she used. In fact, the Arches is the perfect setting for this rare collection, where wandering about under the cavernous brick does feel like stepping into a secret, just-unearthed archive.
The exhibition follows the general timeline of Monroe’s life, displaying objects from each era of her life. Displays outlining her tumultuous upbringing, which saw her shafted between foster families and orphanages, are dotted with family photographs. Her breakthrough as a wartime model while working in a munitions factory is outlined via early modelling images. Clothes, letters, books and newsreel footage accompany sections exploring her Hollywood film years and marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, which were darkened with controlling behaviour, miscarriage and prescription drug use, and the ever-debated circumstances of her death.
Objects are artfully placed together in an effort to show off her mercurial spirit
One of the reasons Monroe’s legacy continues to enthral and mystify us is that her life itself was a tapestry of contradictions. This was a woman who dressed up as a male fantasy, oozing an almost cartoonish sex appeal as the ultimate pin-up of her day, but was also a voracious reader of politically radical books, a supporter of the civil rights movement and the founder of her own production company in a male-dominated industry. These different sides of her personality are illuminated here, and at times objects are artfully placed together in an effort to show off her mercurial spirit – like her copy of Joshua L. Liebman’s Peace of Mind, which she read for self-development, placed next to a pair of her false eyelashes and a picture of her kneeling by a set of bookshelves wearing sheer black lace negligee.
If you’re a fan of Monroe, however, there’s probably nothing new here in the descriptions of her life that you won’t already know about the star. An audio guide provides more extended commentary and has some moving audio from Monore impersonator Suzie Kennedy – but it will cost you an extra £4. And a lot of the objects on display are underwhelming. A dull cabinet of whisks, measuring spoons and other miscellaneous kitchenware illustrates her time spent in Mexico shortly before her death. A battered chair from the 1956 film Bus Stop and a hand-held fan from 1955’s The Seven Year Itch serve as dry glimpses into the world of her movie sets and a promising video display looking at the emancipation of women in the 1920s that Monroe was born into is left frustratingly unexplored.
But there are some moments of magic. A haunting collection of her cosmetics, including a ghostly, misshapen cooling eye mask, pastel bottles of half-used location and a pair of eyelashes looking haunting incongruous away from the famous face they adorned, are set out like glistening armour in the British Museum and give a peek into the reality of what it takes to look like a famous sex symbol. While the most moving items are Monroe’s simple, everyday clothes. One standout piece is a plain, cream blouse, by her favourite clothes brand Jax, which still has ageing brown sweat stains around the armpits. It’s a reminder that beneath the ostentatious blonde locks and fur coats, was a woman who sweated and loved and cried and endured the pain of heartbreak and loss just like the rest of us.
