Marilyn Monroe memorizes lines for a difficult scene with Clark Gable. The improvised setting is the bare Nevada desert. The year, 1960, and the filming is that of the film, The Misfits (Rebel Lives in Spain), ultimately the last of the actress, of Gable and the last great performance of Montgomery Clift, who would only complete three more films before of his death in 1966.
The actress’s hairstyle looks like a capricious cloud, and on her face, the anguish and suffering that accompanied her for much of her life. She is a Marilyn who will never die thanks to the goal of Eve Arnold, who did leave at almost 100 years old. Melancholy reigns in the air of the photo, but in the rooms of the Victoria Museum
Actor Bill Nighy, the decadent, naked rocker in Love Actually, takes call after call in the film. In one of them he is invited to a party after winning the Christmas contest for best song by surprise and he demands with a mischievous face: “Let Elton send me a limousine.”
In the V
It has just opened these days and it is a wild and framed garden where pleasure, reflection and the impact of known and unpublished images give way to a parade of top-class artists in a museum that may not always get it right, but that, Like old London, it is never boring.
Notice to travelers. This is a very serious and extensive exhibition: 300 very exclusive prints by 140 photographers of this century and the past since 1950. It is very serious, but with very delirious touches. Perhaps the most hilarious stars the singer himself from Rocket Man and I’m Still Standing in a very popist snapshot by David LaChapelle.
The singer of the wonderful songs and the always bizarre glasses is portrayed with another pair in the shape of (real) fried eggs in which the yolks are the eyes in the middle of a frugal breakfast accompanied by some pages with musical notes.
The table and floor glow a fiery blue, and the mustard-hued teacup and napkin round out the stunning work of art. Also the singer’s oh, surprise face. Old John, young Elton doing his thing and letting himself be done. Laughing at himself. Well done, teacher.
It must be remembered that one of the new rooms of the now powerful photography section of the V
“Since we began to transfer work by Horst P. Horst in 2014 to Victoria
Strength and fragility have their place in the works of masters such as Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, Gillian Wearing, Cindy Sherman, film director Sam Taylor-Johnson, Herb Ritts, William Eggleston, Diane Arbus, Zanele Muholi, Ai Weiwei, Carrie Mae Weems. All VIPs and everyone on the list.
In the air, also a queer air, of vindication of sexual freedom, of masculinity, of glitter, of what is prohibited or censored, of transgression, of the fight for civil rights and also of the beauty that flourishes in simplicity of a poppy that refuses to wither.
The result? That the singer and his advisors have very good taste and not only because in the documentaries he is seen having lunch not with two fried eggs in his eyes, but with a Van Gogh on the wall right behind him. One of the most exciting rooms includes the Weeping Men series photographed by filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson featuring Daniel Craig, Michael Gambon, Benicio del Toro, Laurence Fishburne and the late Robin Williams and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Elton John is a very serious man when it comes to art. If he lives in London long enough and visits certain museums regularly it is very easy to be next to him admiring the same painting… for example a giant mural by Gilbert
“It is an imposing and captivating exhibition,” said Tristam Hunt, director of the museum, in the presentation. “It talks about the works, but also about the passion of the collectors and their favorite themes, fashion, music, male beauty, the fight for civil rights in the United States and the LGTBI movement,” he added.
Duncan Forbes, director of photography of the V
