She would be 100 years old in 2026, but Monroe continues to shine. Exhibitions, books and celebrations around the world tell the story of the woman behind the icon, the diva who transformed fragility into strength and beauty into art
One hundred years after the birth of Norma Jeane, the little girl who would have made herself the sexiest blonde in the world, people continue to talk about her. Because that young woman who took the name of Marilyn Monroe embodies the figure of a timeless and precious icon.
So much so that in May 2022, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, one of the four portraits that Andy Warhol made of her, won the title of the most expensive work ever sold at auction: 195 million dollars. This is what the news reported on May 13 of that year, talking about the auction dedicated to the collection of Thomas and Doris Amman in which the gallery owner Larry Gagosian purchased the iconic portrait.
That close-up of the beauty, reinterpreted in pastel shades, is in the eyes of all of us and the incredibly high price at which Mr. Gagosian bought it is justified: that silk-screen print is a piece of the puzzle that makes up the global collective imagination, so much so that Monroe has often been compared in popularity to the Mona Lisa.
And now the preparations to celebrate the centenary of Norma Jeane – Marilyn Monroe on June 1, 2026 include exhibitions, books and other events around the world. Chiara Pasqualetti Johnson tells it in the book just released in Italy and in six other countries by the White Star publishing house, entitled Marilyn Monroe. Goddess, diva, woman, accompanied by over 120 extraordinary photographs. «Too often», explains the author, «biographers, mostly men, have focused on the mystery of his death. I want to deal with life”, of those 36 incredible years that transformed a little girl from an unhappy and tormented childhood into a planetary phenomenon, an emblem of an unprecedented femininity. The story begins at Norma Jeane’s earliest age, on a journey of affection and abandonment, in the continuous search for a family she will never have. But why write a book about Marilyn today, what impact does she have on current society?
«Like all myths, Marilyn’s is also made to be reread in different eras. And she is the goddess, in the classical sense, defined according to the different paradigms that have characterized the decades. My contribution is to shed light on an important element: the construction of a public alter ego, as happens today on social media, in decidedly early times”, replies Chiara Pasqualetti. «Marilyn represents the power to build what you want to be. She used femininity in a modern way and invented a new way of being sexy, which was equidistant from the idea of the dangerous dark lady as well as the good fairy and excellent wife. Marilyn is the sexy blonde to be protected, free to show herself sensual and fragile at the same time. It appears pure, candid.”
An example? «The history of the calendar. She had posed nude when she was very young, and her photos populated garages across America. When Fox realized that its movie posters featured the face of that same model, a scandal erupted. But she was able to candidly defuse it. He said that he took those photos when he was young and needed money, but he claimed them back: her beauty delighted those who wanted to look at her and those shots were taken with the photographer’s wife who was always present on the sets.”
But that’s not all: «Marilyn makes a disruptive gesture for the time, denouncing in public interviews the sexist behavior of directors and producers in Hollywood, then opens her own production company. Only one woman before her had tried to do it and this choice will prove strategically successful.” And then? There are many stories. For example, that of art that has been inspired, for generations, by the character Marilyn Monroe.
An exhibition that will open at the National Portrait Gallery in London on June 4, Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, tells this story well. It will host the works of Andy Warhol, Pauline Boty, Marlene Dumas, James Gill, Rosalyn Drexler and Audrey Flack, the shots of photographers of the caliber of Cecil Beaton, Philippe Halsman, Bernard of Hollywood, Andre de Dienes, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Milton Greene and Richard Avedon, together with objects, books, writings and clothes belonging to the star.
Which is also told in Brescia (until February 27 at the Paci Contemporary Gallery, via Borgo Pietro Wuhrer 53) in the exhibition dedicated to Bert Stern, the famous Hollywood photographer who took 2,571 photos of Marilyn Monroe at the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles for a report for Vogue (from which we took the images in the previous two pages). It will become universally known as The Last Sitting: it was the last for the actress, who died a few days later. Los Angeles could not fail to honor its goddess and the Academy museum of motion pictures offers Hollywood Icon (from 5/31/26), an exhibition of original costumes, personal objects and archive materials; Haarlem, in the Netherlands, will kick off a festival, MM100 (from 30/5 to 7/6), including music, art and theater dedicated to the myth. Happy birthday in advance, Marilyn!
