Marilyn Monroe would have turned 100 on June 1, and institutions worldwide are marking her centennial with exhibitions. The National Portrait Gallery in London opens “Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait” on June 4, featuring works by Andy Warhol, Cecil Beaton, and Richard Avedon alongside her personal effects. The Academy Museum in Los Angeles presents hundreds of posters, photographs, letters, and costumes, while the Cinémathèque Française in Paris runs a film retrospective through June 12. The article also surveys the best and worst cultural works Monroe inspired, including Joyce Carol Oates’s novel *Blonde*, Gloria Steinem’s *Marilyn Monroe*, and Warhol’s iconic “Marilyn” series.
This article matters because it examines Monroe’s enduring cultural impact 100 years after her birth, highlighting how her image—as a sex symbol, a tragic figure, and a feminist icon—continues to provoke artistic and scholarly engagement. By reviewing exhibitions, books, and artworks, it underscores the gap between Monroe’s public persona and her private reality, and how that tension remains relevant in discussions of celebrity, exploitation, and feminism in visual culture.