“Untitled” (America) | Art & Artists

Rosalyn Drexler’s work often explores the dark backstories of postwar celebrity culture, focusing especially on gender roles. She frequently clipped subjects from newspapers and magazines—in this painting, a photograph of Marilyn Monroe fleeing the paparazzi with her bodyguard in tow—enlarged and collaged them onto canvas, and then painted over the image. In the artist’s words, her source images were “hidden but present, like a disturbing memory.” On the day this source photograph was taken in 1956, Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were to announce their upcoming marriage; in the frenzy to cover the event, a car carrying reporters crashed, killing at least one member of the press.