Willem de Kooning (1904–1997)
Oil on canvas, 1954
Marilyn—she is known instantly by only her first name—is anything but an obscure object of desire: she is one of the most beguiling women in recent history, able to fascinate both during her life and even now, fifty years after her sad, mysterious, early death. Her allure crossed cultural lines from the fanzine longings of movie lovers to the Kennedy brothers. She was and is the artistic subject of her own movies, innumerable photographers, and painters like Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning. She is everywhere and nowhere in American culture. In 1952 de Kooning finished his powerful Women I, and he went on throughout the decade to create disturbingly assertive images of women, including Marilyn. Why did this monstrous regiment of women so fascinate de Kooning? The answer is unknowable. But it may have been his comment on the “bitch-goddess” Success—the goddess he feared was destroying him, just as it would destroy Marilyn.