September 21, 2019
Los Angeles, California
Before examining this new linkage, I would recommend that readers review Fred Sexton’s biography as summarized in my original blog of July 2007.
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Fred Sexton Bio 1907-1995
HERE
As outlined in Fred Sexton’s biography we discover that prior to his painting the “Death of Monalita” in 1955, Fred Sexton was involved in the sexual abuse and molestation of his own pre-teen daughter (ages 8-11) from 1940-1944.
In 1949-50, Sexton would subsequently admit, in court testimony, to being an accomplice with his good friend, Dr. George Hodel and two adult females to the sexual molestation of my then fourteen-year-old half-sister, Tamar Hodel.
In 1950, Sexton also admitted to his wife, Gwain Sexton to having had sexual relations with his daughter when she was a child.
Sexton divorces Gwain, remarries and commits additional and separate child molestation acts with his new stepdaughter in the late Sixties and after removing reportedly 1.5 million dollars from his wife’s bank account, subsequently flees to Mexico to avoid arrest where he remarries a teenager at age sixty and dies in Guadalajara in his eighties.
This quote from Mark Nelson/Sarah Bayliss “Exquisite Corpse”:
A Critical Examination of Fred Sexton’s artwork, “Death of Monalita” (1955)
Who was “Monalita”?
I do not know. The name literally translates as “Little Mona.”
To date, I have no background information on Sexton’s painting other than it was reportedly created circa 1955. And at one time believed offered for sale at the Calabi Art Gallery.”
Sexton created the painting approximately eight-years after the murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short in 1947, and some five-years after his good friend, Dr. George Hill Hodel fled Los Angeles to avoid arrest for the crime.
Since “art” is in the eye of the beseer, I will describe what I AM SEEING.
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The center painting appears to be a skeletal structure showing what appears to be human vertebrae and ribcage.
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Next, my eye is drawn to a figure and upper torso bisected at the waist, with arm extended in the “Minotaur” position.
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Thirdly, there is a woman’s breast, which appears excised from the body.
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Finally, I see a pair of woman’s lips and lower jawline.
Are these depictions merely random or is the artist presenting “clews” to an infamous crime that he would have been directly aware of if not actually involved in as an accomplice to the murder?
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Human ribcage and vertebrae
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Woman’s Lips
3) Excised woman’s breast
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Duchamp’s “Please Touch” was published just six months after the murder and posing of Elizabeth Short’s body on the vacant lot in Los Angeles, California. See my 2016 blog “Were Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray’s 1947 “Priere de toucher” (Please Touch) Artworks Inspired by Dr. George Hodel’s Surrealist Crime Scene Masterpiece?
4) Posed Minotaur position
A Second Opinion: Graphics and Text Summary by Author and
Retired Dallas PD Officer Robert J. Sadler
Review of the four surrealists paintings now linked as “Thoughtprints” establishing the separate artists’ knowledge of Dr. George Hill Hodel’s “Murder As A Fine Art Sculpture.” (Shown in chronological order as they were presented to the public.) For a complete explanation of linkage, see author’s books and a keyword search on each identified painting in the author’s blog page.
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Fred Sexton’s “Death of Monalita” (1955)
William Copley’s, “It is Midnight Dr. ____.” (1961)
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Marcel Duchamp’s, Etant Donnes (1969)
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Man Ray’s Les Invendables (1969)
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SKH Note– The additional surrealist artworks used as “inspiration” by Dr. George Hill Hodel are not shown in this summary, which is limited to the surrealist’s works created after the murder and acknowledging their knowledge and linkage to the Black Dahlia Murder and her killer.
Those separate artworks inspiring and related to the Black Dahlia crime include:
Man Ray’s- The Minotaure
Man Ray’s- L’Equivoque
Man Ray’s- The Lover’s Lips
Man Ray’s- Juliet Stocking Mask
Man Ray/Copley- Alphabet for Adults
Man Ray’s- The Occuliste
Duchamp’s- “Priere de toucher (Please Touch)
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HODEL, HUSTON, SEXTON, THE THREE AMIGOS
As previously documented, George Hodel, Fred Sexton, and John Huston were close friends from their high school years forward through the decades. Huston had Sexton sculpt his “Black Bird” for Casablanca in 1941. (Currently appraised at $4 million.) Below is a link to an excellent article published in Vanity Fair in 2016, documenting the history and mystery of Sexton’s sculpture.
The Three Amigos
BELOW PHOTO OF FRED SEXTON’S SCULPTURE OF “THE BLACK BIRD” USED IN JOHN HUSTON DIRECTED 1941 FILM, “THE MALTESE FALCON”
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VANITY FAIR- HWD
The Mystery of the Maltese Falcon,
One of the Most Valuable Movie Props in History
A statuette from the John Huston-Humphrey Bogart classic, The Maltese Falcon is one of the most recognizable, and sought-after, pieces of movie memorabilia in history. In fact, Steve Wynn paid $4.1 million for it. But was it the genuine article? Bryan Burrough tracks down a flock of Falcons, with links to both Leonardo DiCaprio and a famous Hollywood unsolved murder.
By BRYAN BURROUGH
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/02/mystery-of-the-maltese-falcon#5
The post Fred Sexton’s Modernist Painting “Death of Monalita” Becomes Fourth Post Black Dahlia Artwork Believed Linked to 1947 Murder- A Sexton Confession On Canvas? appeared first on Steve Hodel.