Marilyn Monroe, oil on linen, 42”X48”, 2018, private collection, Canada
Marilyn Monroe: Searching Beyond the Femme Fatale
Who is the woman behind the femme fatale with blond curls and sensuous curves, a sex symbol desired by millions of glaring eyes, even after her death?
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The tabloids have turned her image into a sacred symbol of show business.
Her face has been reproduced countless times and yet she is nowhere to be found.
The machinery of Hollywood never succeeded in capturing her. In the height as in the ashes of her flame, she escaped the hungry grasp of lust.
This woman is Norma Jeane Mortenson; Marilyn Monroe before she took on the infamous name. Norma spent her childhood in foster homes and—it’s anyone’s guess, including mine—that she desperately wanted to be loved. How else to explain her seemingly innate talent for seduction?
And like all extraordinary talents, this one is explained by lack. She carries a universal wound that nonetheless refuses the mark of the ordinary.
That’s what makes her so troubling. It’s what awes us and makes us go crazy.
In fact, I think all artists embody this affective anomaly. Otherwise, why create? Why give so much and put so much effort? There’s but one reason.
Like Norma, all artists want the same thing—to be loved.
So, where is it now?
This portrait was acquired by cinematographer and art lover Mathieu Provost whose crush on Marilyn is so great that he even named his ad agency “Ludwig & Monroe”.
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