Michela Fabeni Art Gallery | Marilyn Monroe between Pop and Matter: a Timeless Icon in the Sculptural Portrait | Contemporary Bas-Reliefs
- michelafabeni
- Feb 4
- 2 min read
Marilyn Monroe, contemporary bas-relief, a sculptural portrait. It is not just a face. She is an archetype. An image that crossed time and became a symbol of desire, fragility, light, and contradiction.
In this sculptural portrait, created on a 100x100 cm canvas with a 5 cm thickness, Marilyn takes form through living matter. She is not represented: she is brought back into presence. The face emerges in strong relief, shaped with a spatula, where the surface becomes skin, tension, vibration.
The background is a vivid, iridescent green, an energetic field that supports and amplifies the figure. The face and hair are built with intense yellow tones, luminous and almost incandescent. These colors echo the language of Pop Art, yet immediately move beyond it: they are not flat, not serial, not printed. They live within the material itself, shifting with light and changing with perception.
Here, the icon is not visual consumption. It is material resistance. My technique, based on the spatula and substantial thickness, transforms the image into a body. Each layer carries the weight of fame, the force of exposure, and the vulnerability hidden behind the myth.
Marilyn becomes a bridge between past and present. Not nostalgia, but revelation. A dialogue between what was and what still questions us today. This artwork speaks of icons, but above all of humanity. Of what remains when the image stops being surface and returns to light, and matter.
When the icon meets matter, the image ceases to be myth and becomes presence. www.michelafabeniart.com
Great icons are not imitated: they are crossed. And through matter, they reveal new truths. Write me for information and collaborations. michelafabeni@libero.it
Follow my creative journey, artistic diary, and the metamorphoses of the artworks on all social. @michelafabeniart
Michela Fabeni
Artist of the Third Millennium
Bringing an icon back to matter is an act of truth: what endures is what can feel. Read the related posts.
