B E V E R L Y H I L L S - 1 9 5 4 S E R I E S : " F E M M E F A T A L E " | 2 0 1 9
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer. Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. "Marilyn Monroe seems to be brushing away a tear in this picture taken through a window of an automobile October 6 outside the Beverly Hills mansion she shared with Joe DiMaggio. The bosomy actress began crying heavily when she entered the automobile after a front-lawn press conference about an hour after DiMaggio walked out of the house. She appeared red-eyed as newsmen quizzed her about the divorce action she has filed but refused to comment on the smashup of her marriage to the former baseball star. The meeting with the press was her first since she disclosed her divorce plans Monday." Monroe’s 23 movies grossed a total of more than $200 million, and her fame surpassed that of any other entertainer of her time. Marilyn Monroe was a strong woman's rights activist in a time where women had very little too no rights. She was the first woman to get script and director approval in her films. She fought not only for her own rights, but the rights of others too. She was not scared to be friends with minorities and people considered to be 'different. ' She was tolerant, she was brave and she was strong. Marilyn was also an early advocate of civil rights.
Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Nina Simone. British pop artist Russell Young has made these iconic women—“all activists, humanitarians and rebellious by nature,” he says—the subject of paintings based on photographs. Screen-printed on linen and treated with his diamond-dust technique, the images invoke the mythic power of stardom.