The Pink Lady of Malibu

USA / California / Malibu /
 art -(to be removed, see EN descr.), naturism, art museum / art gallery
On the morning of 29 October 1966, a Saturday, northbound drivers on Malibu Canyon Road were startled to find a 60 foot tall nude which had been painted during the night. The identity of the artist remained unknown for several days.
By Monday morning there were newpaper stories about the mysterious work of art, and it was mentioned on radio and television news reports.
On the first of November, L.A. County officials declared the "Pink Lady" (as she was already known) to be a traffic hazard and an eyesore, and ordered that it be summarily removed. It had, in short, been deemed to be just graffiti.
That is when the artist identified herself as Lynn Seemayer, a legal secretary living in the San Fernando Valley.
In spite of Seemayer's efforts to save her work from destruction, on Thursday of that week county workers climbed up the cliff and covered over the Pink Lady with 14 gallons of heavy brown paint.
Only five days after her creation, the Pink Lady of Malibu was gone.
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Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Lady_(art)
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Coordinates:   34°4'10"N   118°42'28"W

Comments

  • Also a film location featured in the comedy film 'Mad Mad Mad Mad World' with fist fight between Milton Berl and PS...On the morning of October 29, 1966, commuters in Malibu Canyon were shocked by a vision that seemed to appear overnight on a shear rock face. Cavorting on the cliff was a 60-foot-high, brilliant-pink figure of a joyfully nude maiden, clutching flowers. The mysterious Pink Lady became a national media sensation. Crowds came to gawk and to wonder who painted her—and how. Throngs grew as the mystery deepened. County officials declared the Pink Lady a traffic hazard and attempted to remove her, but high-pressure water sprays only made her gleam more brightly. Paint remover didn't work. On the ground, her admirers became protective, heckling the county crews and signing petitions that called efforts to erase the Pink Lady "prudish, inartistic, inhuman and apathetic." When the creator stepped forward, shock reigned again. Lynne Seemayer, a 31-year-old artist and mother who lived in Northridge, had spent nights for several months hanging from ropes in the dark drawing the outline. In one marathon session, she applied the paint then went home to make breakfast for her kids. Acclaim and proposals of marriage rolled in, plus offers to join nudist groups. She also got hate mail and a bill from the county. People read all kinds of meaning into the Pink Lady, but Seemayer explained, "I did it simply as an art piece, and that was all." Fourteen gallons of drab gray paint ended the Pink Lady's short life—although for a decade afterward a faint outline could be glimpsed over the tunnel mouth.
  • Also a film location featured and can be seen in the Stanley Krammer comedy film 'Mad Mad Mad Mad World' with fist fight between J. Russell 'Milton Berle' Finch and J. Algernon 'Terry-Thomas' Hawthorne next to Hawthorne's crashed Land Rover jeep.
This article was last modified 16 years ago