Lasting allure of Marilyn
The enduring appeal of screen siren Marilyn Monroe is depicted in two exhibitions about to open in Perth.
Monroe, who would be 88 this year had she survived her 1962 drug overdose aged 36, remains for ever young in a series of rarely seen photographs at Perth's Central Park tower and in a major international touring show at the Art Gallery of WA.
The star of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot and The Misfits lives on as the supreme Hollywood idol in Richard Avedon People, which celebrates the work of the photographer who snapped a who's who of 20th century culture over more than 50 years.
The exhibition, opening at the Art Gallery of WA on August 2, also includes Monroe's Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright husband Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Truman Capote, Elizabeth Taylor, Twiggy and Malcolm X among the 80 Avedon photographs of famous faces and portraits of America's anonymous working class.
At the Linton and Kay Galleries exhibition at Central Park, rare and unpublished images by eight Los Angeles photographers span 17 years in the life of the actress who transformed from the brunette Norma Jeane Baker into the world's most adored platinum blonde. The pop-up exhibition, from July 21 to August 15, depicts Monroe at her most vulnerable and seductive.
