 ©Bert Stern |
Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. Short careers that cast long cultural shadows decades after they died so young and so long ago. Why do their names and images carry with them such complex emotion and thought? There are many sociologists, psychoanalysts and psychologists who have so thoroughly discussed what might truly be called a phenomenon, that spending too much time here on the possible reasons would be embarrassingly redundant.
Regardless of the reasons academic analysts might offer as to why an icon like Marilyn (simply her first name is enough to conjure up all associations), as art dealers we are required to weigh meaning, impact and symbolic associations of the popular iconography we curate into the ongoing narrative of San Francisco Art Exchange.
Well beyond the marketing of imagery for the commercial purpose of manufacturing popularity, certain kinds of individuals in conducive environments can, for a time, be elevated in the social consciousness, but not indefinitely. An inflated balloon can stay aloft for a bit if tossed into the air. Keeping the balloon in the air by blowing or batting it will work for awhile, however, once effort ceases to be exerted to keep the balloon from falling to earth, that’s exactly where it ends up. Other personalities have self-generating popularity that can grow in mystique and influence with the passage of time, staying culturally meaningful, endearing or compelling across generations.
Visiting the subject of the artists themselves, their personalities, their skills as artists might at least give some insight into why we believe certain personalities become celebrated cultural icons of varying stature. Returning to Marilyn, her talent as an actress, comedienne and contemporary beauty helped her build a persona within the unique atmosphere of her time. The persona that grew from those efforts, ironically, came to obscure her talents from popular view. Few to none are successful as the result of “being a natural” or being “born” with talent. The discipline and hard work it takes to refine whatever talents one has into true skills often gets lost in the celebration of the persona that rises from those artistic labors.
Artists like Marilyn or James Dean, Steve McQueen or Elizabeth Taylor, Robert De Niro, Brigitte Bardot, and Michael Caine or Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Portman, and Penelope Cruz, as well as countless others express, or expressed, themselves brilliantly. They make what they do on screen or stage look easy, authentic, natural because of all the prior personal effort and commitment that took place out of our view. To fully surrender to expressing what one’s talents and skills allow an artist to do is an act of personal courage and will.
Like watching a magic trick, when an actor or actress causes us to “go somewhere” with them, to suspend disbelief, to draw us voluntarily into the illusion they have created, our amazement sometimes provokes a form of nostalgia when the props of the magic trick are cleared away. These artists become the embodiment of the magician we want to spend as much time with as possible, in part because they feed our imaginations with possibilities that they, with their skill, have proven exist.
At the San Francisco Art Exchange we present some of the most iconic imagery of Hollywood - for want of a better term, though the weight of this term packs some symbolic wallop of its own. To revisit a previous metaphor, the art of keeping an inflated balloon in the air can often have more to do with what the balloon contains. Once it’s in the air for awhile, organic cultural support and a kind of endearing fascination can keep it afloat effortlessly for a very long time.
Regardless of the reasons academic analysts might offer as to why an icon like Marilyn (simply her first name is enough to conjure up all associations), as art dealers we are required to weigh meaning, impact and symbolic associations of the popular iconography we curate into the ongoing narrative of San Francisco Art Exchange.
Well beyond the marketing of imagery for the commercial purpose of manufacturing popularity, certain kinds of individuals in conducive environments can, for a time, be elevated in the social consciousness, but not indefinitely. An inflated balloon can stay aloft for a bit if tossed into the air. Keeping the balloon in the air by blowing or batting it will work for awhile, however, once effort ceases to be exerted to keep the balloon from falling to earth, that’s exactly where it ends up. Other personalities have self-generating popularity that can grow in mystique and influence with the passage of time, staying culturally meaningful, endearing or compelling across generations.
 ©Richard Miller |
Artists like Marilyn or James Dean, Steve McQueen or Elizabeth Taylor, Robert De Niro, Brigitte Bardot, and Michael Caine or Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Portman, and Penelope Cruz, as well as countless others express, or expressed, themselves brilliantly. They make what they do on screen or stage look easy, authentic, natural because of all the prior personal effort and commitment that took place out of our view. To fully surrender to expressing what one’s talents and skills allow an artist to do is an act of personal courage and will.
 ©Terry O'Neill |
At the San Francisco Art Exchange we present some of the most iconic imagery of Hollywood - for want of a better term, though the weight of this term packs some symbolic wallop of its own. To revisit a previous metaphor, the art of keeping an inflated balloon in the air can often have more to do with what the balloon contains. Once it’s in the air for awhile, organic cultural support and a kind of endearing fascination can keep it afloat effortlessly for a very long time.
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