On Bombshells and Public Art

The Chicago sculpture that isn’t a favorite among locals. (image via flickr.com/swimfinfan)

The Wall Street Journal looks at the new Marilyn Monroe sculpture that recently went up in Chicago’s Loop and provides the answers to a bunch of questions we’ve been wondering about ourselves, like “How tall is it?” (answer: 26 feet) and “Who made it?” (answer: artist Seward Johnson, who also happens to be the 80-year-old grandson of one of the founders of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical empire) and “What the hell does Marilyn in ‘The Seven Year Itch’ have to do with Chicago?” (answer: absolutely nothing).

While the article quotes a local merchant as saying homegrown reaction to the sculpture has been “almost uniformly negative,” it seems to be a runway (flyaway?) success among visitors to the Windy City, at least in measured in terms of the number of photos tagged with “Marilyn+Chicago” that have been posted on Flickr since it was unveiled last month. (That said, it still lags several thousand photos behind a certain nearby bean-shaped crowd pleaser in the popularity sweepstakes.)

We’re just wondering if we’re the only ones who think it looks like she’s passing wind above all those tiny little tourists gathering behind her to snap pictures up her skirt when “Forever Marilyn” is viewed from a certain angle. (Answer: we probably are.)