Exhibit Review: One Life: Sylvia Plath

Breaking Out of the Bell Jar

By Alex Carrigan
@carriganak
QuailBellMagazine.com
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​I don't know what to say about Sylvia Plath.

I know who Sylvia Plath is. I've heard of her books, I know of her legacy, and I know of her end. I've never read anything written by her, but from what I've gathered, The Bell Jar speaks to every young woman who enters an English B.A. program. I don't think there's anything I'd massively dislike about her or her work, but it means I don't have much in the way to speak about her.

When I learned there was a special exhibit for her at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., I was a bit surprised. I knew Plath was a writer and assumed that was all she was known for. But apparently, Plath was also a visual artist, and was heading down the route to be an artist before she even wrote her first collection of poems. So, new to the D.C. area and looking for something to do, I decided to check out the National Portrait Gallery.

When I got to the museum, I went top-down, starting at the top floor of the building and visiting every room before I landed on the first floor and saw the Plath exhibit. This helped me get in the mood, as it allowed me to view all types of figures who were on display at the gallery. It wasn't just presidents and other politicians, but there were professional athletes, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and all kinds of individuals who represented America. It reminded me of some of the most influential people in America's nearly-300 year old history.

Thus, when I finally arrived at the gallery, I was feeling a lot of patriotic fervor, fury, and pride. Heck, I even walked into the gallery space for Plath's exhibit and stepped out before realizing it was the exhibit I had made the trip for. Fortunately, I did an about-face and went in.

​The exhibit, One Life: Sylvia Plath, was set in a small room near one of the main entrances to the gallery. The gallery was already buzzing and filled with people because of a video game expo that was held there that day, but Plath's exhibit was not ignored. When I walked in, the room was already filled, mostly with women of all ages. Starting from the immediate left and around the room, you could see a whole array of Plath's visual work, from her early childhood to the end of her life. 

What I found interesting about the exhibit was that it wasn't concerned with playing up or playing down any aspect of Plath's life. It didn't treat her decision to be a writer over an artist as any great loss, but another side of such an enigmatic woman. If anything, it showed how both aspects shaped her and could be seen from as early as when she was in elementary school. Behind glass were paper dolls she made and Christmas cards with poems she sent to her family. You could see that Plath was bright and creative from an early age, but you could also see she was someone who cared greatly for those around her.

As she got older, there were more pieces of mixed media in the room. There were journals with doodles in the margins, and there were even some private photos. One particularly great one was a blonde Plath lying on a beach in a white bathing suit. It was her attempt to emulate Marilyn Monroe, and it showed a witty side to her. Along with pictures of her children, you don't see the woman who people equate with sad, female writers, but just a normal woman who dedicated herself to art and family.

​When I left the gallery, I had a better idea of who Plath was. I may not have read her work, but I saw all these sides to this woman as a person. She was at equal times an artist, a creative, a mother, a wife, and an enigma. From the sheer number of people amazed at the sight of her old typewriter, I could see this was a woman who made the most of her short time on Earth. I also could see why it was held in a museum dedicated to notable political figures, founding fathers, civil rights advocates, and popular movie stars. Plath was an American, and she represented an ever-changing side of American culture. She may not have lived a long life, but in her short life, she showed a perfect encapsulation of the artist in the mid-20th century. She showed where art and literature could go in the decades that followed her death, and I was quite surprised how much respect and admiration I had for a woman whose work I had never read, but maybe who I should look into soon.

​One Life: Sylvia Plath will run at the National Portrait Gallery from June 30, 2017- May 20, 2018. The museum is open daily from 11:30 am- 7:00 pm.