Marilyn Monroe’s image has never belonged to a single medium. This summer, the National Portrait Gallery in London will examine just how many forms it took.
Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait opens on June 4, 2026, and runs through September 6, coinciding with the centenary of the American actress and model, who became one of the most photographed figures of the 20th century. The exhibition brings together portraits by Andy Warhol, Pauline Boty, and Marlene Dumas, as well as work by more than twenty photographers, including Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, and Eve Arnold.
The show also includes Monroe’s personal effects — books, scripts, and clothing — offering a more intimate counterpoint to the polished public image that made her a global presence. Among the most notable works are previously unseen photographs from her 1962 Life magazine feature, taken by Allan Grant at her home in Brentwood, California. Those images were made for the magazine but never published, adding a rare archival dimension to the exhibition.
Monroe’s death at thirty-six, just one day after that Life issue appeared, reverberated widely across the art world. The exhibition includes works by Joseph Cornell, James Francis Gill, and Rosalyn Drexler that were inspired by her death, showing how quickly she became a subject for artists working in Europe and the United States.
The curators, Rosie Broadley and Georgia Atienza, frame Monroe not only as a star of film and photography, but as a lasting cultural image shaped by repetition, projection, and reinvention. A publication with the same title will accompany the exhibition, with contributions from Rosie Broadley, Lena Dunham, and Bonnie Greer, among others.
Victoria Siddall, the gallery’s director, said Monroe remains “one of the most recognizable people in modern history,” a shorthand for glamour reinforced by the films she made, the photographs that circulated of her, and the generations of artists she inspired. The exhibition suggests that her afterlife in art is not a footnote to her fame, but part of what made her enduring.
