{ "data": { "id": 325470, "accession_number": "2019.31", "share_license_status": "Copyrighted", "tombstone": "Marilyn Monroe Distortion, c. 1960. Weegee (American, 1899\u20131968). Gelatin silver print; image: 28 x 26.4 cm (11 x 10 3/8 in.); paper: 35.3 x 27.7 cm (13 7/8 x 10 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Diann G. Mann and Thomas A. Mann, 2019.31", "current_location": null, "title": "Marilyn Monroe Distortion", "creation_date": "c. 1960", "creation_date_earliest": 1955, "creation_date_latest": 1965, "artists_tags": [ "Jewish artists", "male" ], "culture": [ "America" ], "technique": "gelatin silver print", "support_materials": [], "department": "Photography", "collection": "PH - American 1951-Present", "type": "Photograph", "measurements": "Image: 28 x 26.4 cm (11 x 10 3/8 in.); Paper: 35.3 x 27.7 cm (13 7/8 x 10 7/8 in.)", "dimensions": { "image": { "height": 0.28, "height_inch": 11, "height_inch_fraction": 0.0, "width": 0.264, "width_inch": 10, "width_inch_fraction": 0.375 }, "paper": { "height": 0.353, "height_inch": 13, "height_inch_fraction": 0.875, "width": 0.277, "width_inch": 10, "width_inch_fraction": 0.875 } }, "state_of_the_work": null, "edition_of_the_work": null, "copyright": null, "inscriptions": [ { "inscription": "Stamped in black ink on verso: \u201cCREDIT PHOTO BY/WEEGEE/THE FAMOUS\u201d", "inscription_translation": null, "inscription_remark": null, "sortorder": null }, { "inscription": "Stamped in black ink on verso: \u201cPLEASE CREDIT/WEEGEE/FROM/PHOTO-REPRESENTATIVES\u201d", "inscription_translation": null, "inscription_remark": null, "sortorder": null }, { "inscription": "Imprinted in type on white adhesive label on verso of foam core backing board: \u201cHerbert F. Johnson Museum of Art/Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4001/Return postage guaranteed/9. WeeGee (Arthur Fellig) (1899-1968) American/Marilyn Monroe, c. 1947/silver print/23 3/8 x 22 \u00bd\u201d/An American Portrait: Photographs from the/Collection of Diann and Thomas Mann/April 1-June 12, 1994\u201d", "inscription_translation": null, "inscription_remark": null, "sortorder": null }, { "inscription": "Imprinted in green type on yellow adhesive label on verso of foam core backing board: \u201cTHE FRAME CENTER/BP America Atrium/78-1999 Greens of Lyndhurst/473-0422/McFarland\u2019s Corners/543-7003\u201d", "inscription_translation": null, "inscription_remark": null, "sortorder": null } ], "exhibitions": { "current": [], "legacy": [] }, "provenance": [ { "description": "Fotomann, New York, NY", "citations": [], "footnotes": [], "date": null, "sortorder": 1 }, { "description": "Thomas A. and Diann G. Mann, Palm Beach Gardens, FL", "citations": [], "footnotes": [], "date": "1992-2019", "sortorder": 2 }, { "description": "the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH", "citations": [], "footnotes": [], "date": "March 4, 2019", "sortorder": 3 } ], "find_spot": null, "related_works": [], "former_accession_numbers": [], "did_you_know": "Weegee, whose family emigrated from what is now the Ukraine in 1909, began working as a street photographer at age fourteen.", "description": "Weegee, who gained renown as a photojournalist, spent his last two decades making creative work that was the opposite of reportage: distorted photographs. He devised a number of techniques for distorting images. This image may be the result of inserting curved glass or plastic between the enlarger lens and the photographic paper or exposing the negative to heat, then printing from it, or some other secret method.", "external_resources": { "wikidata": [ "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79875992" ], "internet_archive": [] }, "citations": [ { "citation": "Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc. An American Journey: The Diann G. and Thomas A. Mann Collection of Photographic Masterworks. 2018.", "page_number": null, "url": null } ], "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.31", "images": {}, "alternate_images": [], "creditline": "Gift of Diann G. Mann and Thomas A. Mann", "image_credit": null, "sketchfab_id": null, "sketchfab_url": null, "gallery_donor_text": null, "athena_id": 325470, "creators": [ { "id": 1070, "description": "Weegee (American, 1899\u20131968)", "extent": null, "qualifier": null, "role": "artist", "biography": "Weegee (Arthur H. Fellig) American, b. Austria-Hungary, 1899-1968 Born Usher Fellig (Usher was changed to Arthur by an immigration officer at Ellis Island) in Zloczew, Austria (now Poland), Weegee was a New York City press photographer famous during the 1930s-40s for his dramatic nighttime shots of murders, fires, and accidents. His family immigrated to the United States in 1910, and Weegee grew up in the tenements on Manhattan's Lower East Side. After a variety of jobs, he found employment with Acme Newspictures (1924-35, later United Press International Photos), where he worked first in the darkroom and then covering night assignments when the regular photographers were off duty. Weegee left Acme in 1935, establishing himself as a freelance news photographer. During these years he was given his nickname, a reference to the then popular Ouija board and his uncanny ability to discover news stories first. Using a Speed Graphic 4 x 5-inch camera with Graflex-synchronized flash, he worked mainly at night, listening to a radio that picked up police calls in order to arrive first at the scene of a disaster. He sold his pictures to the newspapers and the wire services, and in 1940 also became staff photographer for PM's Weekly. In addition to covering crimes and accidents, Weegee photographed nightclubs in Harlem, Sammy's bar in the Bowery, the Metropolitan Opera, Coney Island, and other genre scenes of New York. In 1943 his photographs were included in Action Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the following year his work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Photo League (Weegee: Murder Is My Business). His popular book, Naked City, appeared in 1945, inspiring the film Weegee's New York two years later. Weegee was hired as a special consultant for the movie and following its completion in 1948 moved to Hollywood, where he worked as an actor and special effects advisor for films. During the 1950s-60s he was active as a freelance photographer in Hollywood and New York as well as Europe; he also worked with trick photography, producing caricatures of celebrities and well-known political figures. Since his 1968 death in New York City, his work has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, New York (1977), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1984). M.M.", "name_in_original_language": null, "birth_year": "1899", "death_year": "1968", "use_in_caption": true, "include_extent": false, "weight": 1 } ], "legal_status": "accessioned", "accession_date": "2019-03-04T00:00:00-05:00", "sortable_date": 1955, "date_added_to_oa": null, "date_text": "c. 1960", "collapse_artists": false, "on_loan": false, "recently_acquired": false, "record_type": "object", "conservation_statement": null, "has_conservation_images": false, "cover_accession_number": null, "is_nazi_era_provenance": false, "impression": null, "alternate_titles": [], "is_highlight": false, "updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:54:01.221000" } }