Marilyn Monroe 1926-1962
Former chef turned artist Simon White painted this mural (using a 1957 photo of Marilyn by Sam Shaw, plus The Beatles and explorer Steve Irwin as inspiration) on a water tank in his new hometown of Loch Sport, Victoria (on the East Gippsland coast, 260 km east of Melbourne, Australia), as Carolyn Webb reports for the Brisbane Times.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of the most influential pop albums ever made. The cover – a collage by artist Peter Blake – features the Fab Four lining up alongside more than sixty of the last century’s most iconic figures. Marilyn is there, as photographed by Ben Ross in 1953. BBC Music have compiled a mini-documentary for each one: Marilyn’s includes newsreel footage from her arrival in England to shoot The Prince and the Showgirl in 1956. You can watch the clip here.
New and older works from British pop artist Peter Blake at Christie’s, London until August 12, and at Studio 18, St Helier, Jersey.
Marilyn also featured on Blake’s legendary album cover for the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967.
Peter Blake is interviewed today in the Sunday Telegraph