If the success of last year’s My Week With Marilyn is anything to go by, Maralyn Monroe’s flickering flame looks likely to endure the test of time and the latest exhibition to grace the National Portrait Gallery is a continuation of her never ending appeal. Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair opens at the Gallery’s Room 33 later this month (29th September 2012) and brings together the screen icon’s connection with all that is British.
The exhibition is set to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Miss Monroe’s death in 1962. However, it is planned as both a celebration of her life and an insight into her ties with the UK, including many shots from her visit to Britain in 1056 for the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl alongside Laurence Olivier, which was the focus of My Week With Marilyn.
Shots include the work of Life magazine photographer, Larry Burrows, Marilyn Monroe meeting Queen Elizabeth II and those taken in a private sitting with cinematographer, Jack Cardiff.
Perhaps the most poignant collection in the exhibition is the selection of magazine cover shoots that trace her career from the 1947 image of Norma Jean Baker by André de Dienes in 1947 for Picture Post, to the 1961 Life magazine cover shoot of her with husband Arthur Miller and the Town magazine shot that would be her last (published three months after her death) taken by George Barris.
The Marilyn Monroe exhibition will run on until the 24th March 2012, building on the legacy of one of he 20th Century’s most photographed cinema legends. With a raft of rare magazine covers, prints, lobby cards and movie stills, the exhibition has a lot more to it than just the glamour of the flying white dress.
