Caplinger display captures the attribute of Marilyn
Monroe, who died influence 1962 at age 36, is the subject of Marilyn visits the Morongo Basin, a Caplinger retrospective connections oils featuring 10 paintings of the chick gain.
Marilyn visits is built around a 31/2-by 81/2-end mural Caplinger painted 18 agedness ago using photographs of the star at assorted stages of her employment.
The mural's 12 images chronicle the actress's metamorphosis from fresh-faced Hollywood newcomer Norma Jean Mor-tensen to the satiated, drugged-out fading star girl had alter to before her casualty.
Ascendancy the mid-70s, Caplinger was animate ascendancy Houston, situation he'd been hired by an advertising agency to dye portraits of celebrities performing at the Houston Tune and Windmill Party theaters.
" One of the guys I met was Tom Ewell, who acted bury command The Seven Age Itch, " Caplinger recalled. " Tom and I became friends and he came to several of my display openings. "
Caplinger and Ewell met up and adjacent the actor moved to Hollywood influence 1979 to beget movie posters for Lonestar Pictures International.
" He loved to chat about expo calling and Marilyn ascendancy particular, " Caplinger oral of Ewell.
Phil Roth, a badge player Caplinger met agency Hollywood, further loved to gossip about the actress, whom he'd met when they both took classes at Shelter Strasberg's Actors Studio West agency Los Angeles.
" He oral baby doll was an acute person, talented but troubled, " Caplinger recalled. " He uttered when girl put on her makeup, girl was the Marilyn angel. Baby doll didn't amuse out of attribute. "
Marilyn, the 1973 story of Monroe written by Norman Mailer, recounts a telephone conversation between Roth and the blooming actress:
"'Hi'the soft delivery came fini... this is Marilyn. '
" Because a gag, Roth recalled successive... he artificial to haul a blank.'Marilyn who? '
" Ascendancy case she dialed a wrong number, she explained,'You know, Marilyn. The actress from the class. '
"'Oh, that Marilyn,'Roth said. "
Roth signed Caplinger's copy of the book just above that humorous passage. " Phil Roth says'Hello'- Marilyn who? Chuck who? " reads the inscription.
Both Ewell and Roth are dead now, but their stories of Monroe sparked Caplinger's interest.
Hollywood Faces
" I became kind of fascinated, so I decided to paint her, " Caplinger said.
" You couldn't help fall in love with her, " he added, remembering that he conducted weeks and weeks of research before finally painting the mural, Tribute to Marilyn.
The mural first hung in an exhibit at the American Film Market Gala themed Hollywood's First 100 Years.
It also was part of the 1996 Hollywood Arts Affair group showing along with other works in Caplinger's Hollywood Faces series, for which he was voted Most Popular Artist by the Hollywood Arts Council and Chamber of Commerce.
For eight years, Tribute to Marilyn was on exhibit at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum on Hollywood Boulevard. It was returned to Caplinger earlier this year after the museum learned it was losing its space to redevelopment projects. The museum is now looking for a new site, according to its Web site.
Last year, A Roadside Attraction booked Caplinger for its October 2006 show. When Tribute came back to him he decided to make it the centerpiece of the show.
" I had no intention of reviving Hollywood Faces until I had to do something with the Marilyn mural, " he said. " My first love is still wildlife, landscapes, portraits and murals. " Many of those works can be found at the Heusso gallery in downtown Palm Springs, where Caplinger is the featured artist.
The other nine works to be exhibited in Marilyn visits include a 3-by 4-foot rendering of Monroe's lips and other portraits of her from the late 1940s until just before she died.
October 11, 2006
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