Searching for the ‘Real’ Marilyn Monroe

Joanne Robertson on improvisation; Alice Theobald's French lessons; the Lindisfarne Gospels; Istanbul Biennial and Aichi Trienniale reviewed |

View this email in your browser In Thrall In Andrew Dominik's Blonde (2022), Marilyn Monroe is 'a doll stripped of her motivations, ambitions and interests', writes Rebecca Liu in a brilliant essay on our enduring obsession with the Hollywood icon. 'It is so boring, so uninteresting, so tiresome to tell the story of the woman who singularly embodied the act of modern self-creation, whose life ran alongside the currents of twentieth-century Hollywood, Cold War politics and post-war working-class American identity, through a prosaic pop Freudian tale about a lost little girl with daddy issues.' And yet, as Liu argues, Monroe has always been a mirror for our own anxieties; every few years, another story of Monroe reemerges, another chance to redeem her from the pain inflicted on her. 'And yet we are always left more in thrall to the myth and no more enlightened.' Elsewhere on artreview.com: headphones on for our latest podcast, in which host Ross Simonini talks to musician and painter Joanne Robertson about improvisation; Tom Whyman writes on the Lindisfarne Gospels and the past as a foreign country; new into Art Lovers Movie Club is a film that makes art of awkwardness, in the bizarre language class of Alice Theobald's IL Y AURA (There will be); my thoughts on the recently-opened Istanbul Biennial; and much more. En Liang Khong, Director of Digital 'The Blonde Actress' Andrew Dominik's film is the latest in a line of attempts to uncover some overarching 'truth' to the icon's life. Rebecca Liu asks: What are we really looking at when we think we are looking at Marilyn Monroe? read now Folk Politics Can the much-delayed 17th Istanbul Biennial – forged over the protracted disruptions of the pandemic – deliver on its promise of longterm thinking? En Liang Khong travels to Turkey to find out. read now 'IL Y AURA (There will be)' In this month's Art Lovers Movie Club, French-British artist Alice Theobald presents IL Y AURA (There will be), a home movie-like comment on cliché, social custom and the cyclical nature of producing fiction whilst simultaneously being produced by it. stream now The Distant Aura The Lindisfarne Gospels are, for Tom Whyman, a brilliant example of 'Insular', or 'Hiberno-Saxon' art, from a time when artists in Britain and Ireland largely produced work in a common style distinct from that of the rest of Europe. read now Who's Exploiting Who? ArtReview's Mark Rappolt and J.J. Charlesworth spoke to ruangrupa's farid rakun and Ade Darmawan about their hopes for, and the results of, ruangrupa's artistic direction of documenta fifteen – and what happens next. read now Out Of His Time Visiting The Exile of Dionysus at CCA Brighton, John Quin discovers the paintings of little-known artist Bill Lynch – 'his organic forms are as ecstatically sumptuous as the opulent botanical pastels of Odilon Redon'. read now What Are Museums Really For? Rather than acknowledge or exorcise the ghosts of previous scandals surrounding censorship in the 2019 edition, Mark Rappolt finds that Aichi Triennale 2022: Still Alive twists around to gnaw on its tail. read now Improvisation and Vacuums The latest episode of Subject, Object, Verb features musician and painter Joanne Robertson, whose work is born from improvisation. Together with Ross Simonini she discusses her ideas on music, art and life, all while she nurses her newborn baby. listen now Women After Motherhood In an American summer stamped by the reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision, Claudia Ross considers how Mary Kelly's Corpus at Vielmetter, Los Angeles explores the vast territory beyond reproduction, challenging our focus on the young. read now Art, Or the Aftermath Of a Party? At once a post-funeral wake, a BDSM orgy and a metaphor for a wildly uninhibited life now extinguished, Flanagan's Wake at Los Angeles's Kristina Kite Gallery, Jonathan Griffin assesses, is a lyrical and sentimental tribute to Bob Flanagan. read now When West and East Meet Phoebe Blatton visits The Dark Arts at Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, and finds a trove of bewildering treasures in the history of Balto-Slavic symbolism – and Aleksandra Waliszewska's camp kind of horror. read now Not subscribed yet? Sign up to ArtReview's newsletters © 2022 ArtReview Ltd. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at www.artreview.com or the previous digital magazine website Our mailing address is: ArtReview Ltd. 1 Honduras Street London, England EC1Y 0TH United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.