Marilyn's like a veil — NATALIE KRICK

Boren Banner Series : Natalie Krick

Frye Art Museum October 16th 2024 - April 6th 2025

Curated by Alexis L Silva

Installation Photographs : Jueqian Fang

Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jean -Marilyn Monroe

In this new suite of photographic works, Natalie Krick (born 1986, Portland, Oregon) deconstructs pictures of Marilyn Monroe to probe relationships of power. She reproduces pages from Bert Stern’s The Complete Last Sitting, a book of photographs the commercial artist took six weeks before Monroe’s death that includes selections the actress rejected by marking them with a large red X. Stern paired what are now among the most iconic, intimate images of Monroe - fashion shots, portraits, and nude studies - with eroticized text, shaping a final narrative of the actress that endures to this day. Krick physically manipulates and rearranges elements of Stern’s book to reframe the story it tells.

The artist approaches her collages as sculptural objects that, in her words, “revisit the idea of a photograph being an act of removal and of representation.” To this end, Krick’s compositions reposition Monroe as the photographer. She also erases segments of Stern’s language to create poems that imagine the actress’s point of view. By giving agency to Monroe, the artist undermines the dynamic of objectification and sexualization Stern imposted on her in his book. Krick’s works reveal the inherent power imbalance between photographer and subject, urging a critical examination of the women historically exploited by the medium - and of our complicity in consuming their images.

+

The image (maker)

2024

20 x 24 inches

Collaged chromogenic prints, gold acrylic mirror