Half a century without Marilyn

In the circumstances of the death of Monroe, which occurred on the night of August 4-5, 1962 in her house in Los Angeles, there is still no clarity. It is believed that she committed suicide, having accepted a huge number of pills, but still have a version of her murder. At the time of death, the actress was 36 years old.

For a short life, Monroe starred in dozens of films, was married three times, for the last time - for the famous playwright Arthur Miller, her name was firmly associated with President John Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy. Despite the grandiose success and glory, in the last years of Monroe, Monroe has encountered psychological disorders and diseases.

After the death of the actress, her image became one of the key in contemporary art. This is stated by Olesya Turkina - St. Petersburg art critic, an employee of the department of the latest movements of the Russian Museum:

- Marilyn Monroe is not accidentally called an icon of style. The icon means an image that has become recognizable. The most famous was the work of Andy Warholl, which he did two years after the death of Marilyn Monroe - in 1964. This portrait is now better known than thetraditional photo portraits of the actress. Or the famous scene from the movie "The Seventh-Seveh-Year House" , where the stream of air from the Metro grate raises the Marylin's skirt-this image was used at the very first exhibition of pop art in the UK, which was called this is Tomorrow, that is, "this is tomorrow." There were two such images-one of the Forbidden Planet (“Forbidden Planet”) and Marilyn Monroe from the Seventh-year's fever. They became a kind of propylee who invited the audience to be in the world tomorrow.

I would like to recall our compatriot, wonderful artist Vladislav Mamyshev-Monro, who in the early 90s tried on the stage image of Marilyn Monroe and therefore received his second name-Monroe. He became one of the first performanists in Russia to enter this image. Mamyshev-Monro, as he is now known, appeared in this image on the streets, which caused an incredible reaction-you can imagine this in the late 80s-early 90s!

If we talk about the latest works - this, of course, is the Algerian artist Philip Pernino living in France. Recently, the premiere of his work took place in Basel, in which he presented how all the newspapers wrote, "Ghost Marilyn Monroe." What is it? You see in detail the room, the room of Marilyn Monroe, in which she lived in the New York Hotel Waldorf Astoria in the 50s. Actually, you see everything with the eyes of the actress - a table, a lamp, walls. Then you see a desk. And then the hand begins to write. You begin to read this letter. You hear the voice of the actress, then the words are crossed out. And suddenly you feel loneliness, emptiness, loss. You are gradually getting used to this image. This is a well-known movie effect: when you look at something through the eyes of a hero or heroine, you yourself perceive yourself as this hero or heroine. And at the end the camera drives away, and you see a large mechanical hand. The artist, in order for the viewer to be embodied and feel like an actress, created a robot. He also simulated her voice using a computer. This was not created so that, as in Disneyland, you find yourself in virtual reality, but in order for you to survive this sensation and this space.

-Do you believe that such a wide use of the image of Marilyn Monroe is caused by the fact that she was an over-class actress, or is there anything else related to the circumstances of her death in this image?

- She was not just beautiful. Marilyn Monroe somehow embodied not just beauty and not just sexuality, she embodied the love itself, very sensual, very tragic and very fragile. And this maximum moment, probably, attracted artists most of all. Not only because Marilyn Monley Andy Warhol was attracted that he was a propagandist of the icons of style (he turned to the image of Jacqueline Kennedy, John Kennedy, Elvis Presley). We remember that, for example, the same Andy Warhol has a lot of images associated with death, for example, skull or photographs of car accident. Someone was the border between love, death, life. It felt that it was so bright and so beautiful that this moment could not last forever.

Perhaps this is what is connected with art and characteristic of any aesthetic experience. Something very lively, touching every person. It is amazing that the camera not only did not kill, but, on the contrary, showed. After all, Marilyn was unusually photogenic. The camera not just loved her, the camera adored her. You understood all its warmth, all its brightness. This is especially clearly in the modern world - the world of glamor, immobility and death. Modern fashion magazines promotes the image not of life, not love, but some eternal death, these are frozen images. In this sense, the image of Marilyn Monroe has always been alive. Despite the fact that her 50 years are no longer with us, after all, she is more alive than all the living, and more alive than all those images that we see now on the pages of magazines and on cinema screens, Olesya Turkina believes.

Russian artist Vladislav Mamyshev-Monro , obliged to the legendary actress with his artistic name, is inclined to deify her. In an interview with Radio, the artist spoke about the history of his relationship with Merilin Monroe.

- Why did Monroe become the first character of your performances?

- This is a personal story. My mother was incredibly similar to Monroe in her youth. Therefore, when the film Like It Hot was shown in the cinemas (in the Soviet box office - "In jazz only girls"), I just automatically switched from my mother to this more improved version. Mom was a party worker, and Monroe was already an absolutely divine creature.

- Why did you begin to transform into this image?

“I took me absolutely, like many millions of citizens of our planet, is a love for this amazing woman.” I would never have decided, maybe to shift this image to myself. There were just the circumstances. It was 1987, all my artists-artists in St. Petersburg just starred in the film "Assa", and I went to serve in the army. I served at the Baikonur cosmodrome. It was very boring and very far. Therefore, I have nothing to do, serving in the army, while in the premises of the children's club, which was at my disposal, I decided to surprise my avant-garde friends in St. Petersburg, taking photos in the image of Monroe. They were accidentally found by the political officer. Thus, thanks to Monroe, even ahead of time, they sent me from the army.

It was a scandal. They sent to be checked to the psychiatric department, and I was at home six months earlier and very actively joined in artistic activity with this bright way on the shield. Then Sergey Kurekhin, Timur Novikov, art historians from the Russian Museum were happy that such a desperate person appeared, because it coincided with their aspirations. Everything was so successful. I think that in the same way in the life of the artist Andy Warhol (he also deified Marilyn Monroe) she played some important role. I believe that she, rather, from the category of religious characters than a sex symbol, as it is customary to attribute to her. This is an image of love, the exact opposite of, say, the image of Adolf Hitler, such a completely personifying good creature. This is an image of ideality, absolute self -denial - in order to bring joy to other people. Always, when she poses, no matter before whom, she completely gives herself to. This is such a strange dedication, almost erected in mania. The desire to be absolutely Perfect, perfect.

- Monroe lived a brilliant life, enjoyed incredible success. This was followed by the same bright death. How much did her death play a role in forming her image? If she lived longer, died an old woman, would it change anything in her image?

- Of course. She is precisely the ideal that her point of Akme is the point of her death. She did not later sink, as is usually the case. She is like a flower that reaches its maximum beauty and dies. I am so close to the deification of her image-and not only I am alone, including because of the magic of numbers. She was born in 1926. This is the mirror reflection of the year of her death-1962. Its age is exactly three 12-year-old cycles of the Chinese calendar. It will be even difficult to think if you try to come up with some other fate for her.

Another thing is that I am not entirely sure that she committed suicide. As a child, I cut out pictures and articles about Monroe from the Western press in a public library in Leningrad. And they caught me by the hand, but I already issued almost the entire fund by that time. I studied in detail the first journalistic investigations of her death. A clear feeling was made in the early days that her housekeeper Unis Murray was almost caught there at the crime scene. Then suddenly some documents were lost, some tests were replaced. What later pushed me to confirm these strange thoughts that it was still a housekeeper was that, oddly enough, a few years ago, when Michael Jackson died , this surname again arose-Murray-a man who injured this star.

And they are somewhat similar, Michael Jackson and Monroe-not quite, sane people in everyday sense, completely serving higher considerations. So with regard to Monroe, I believe it was a murder, ”says Vladislav Mamyshev-Monro.

50 years have passed since the death of Marilyn Monroe, and the fact that so many theories still exist about her death, only adds mythological to her image. Let us return to the question - why she was loved so much. Vasily Aksenov has an anecdote in one of the novels: a certain writer comes to the "Big Transcaucasian City" and sees that the film "Only Girls in Jazz" is going on in all cinemas. The writer catches the driver to lead him. And the driver says to him: “The artist, I didn’t remember the last name ... the whole city fell in love. Such a woman! .. If she comes to us, I’ll go to her right away! My wife and I live for ten years, live well, understand, but still I directly said to her:“ If this artist arrives, I will go right away! ”And you know, dear, if she says, I’ll come here,“ Tofik, ” Go! "

“She will not come,” said the writer, “she, you see, died back in 1962.” I committed suicide.

- What are you saying?! Cried the driver. - How can it be?! I watch her every day!

Before the red traffic light, he leaned out of the window of his car and shouted to the driver in the neighborhood:

- Archil, here the person says that this artist died for a long time!

And from the response of the neighboring driver, the writer realized that "Marilyn Monroe did not die, could not die, because Archil Sulakauri went to watch her this morning, before work."

Question to Vladislav Mamyshev-Monro: this level of folk love has still been preserved, or is it leaving?

- Still preserved. And this is just a mystery confirming the nature of her personality more as a religious than acting. This is very strange. I communicate with completely young people. In the same way, it acts on them as the youth of that time. Then she personified some kind of emancipation, was exposed in photographs, and it was possible, for example, the influence on the youth was attributed to this particular-that she was such a sexual revolutionary. But now it does not work at all, now other standards-and yet, Monroe has a very strange, special position.

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