{"id":384511,"date":"2026-04-06T10:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/384511\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:26:12","slug":"the-original-triple-threat-two-exhibitions-celebrate-marilyn-monroe-as-creative-pioneer-marilyn-monroe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/384511\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The original triple threat\u2019: two exhibitions celebrate Marilyn Monroe as creative pioneer | Marilyn Monroe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though often reduced to a sex symbol frozen in time, or a tragic figure at the centre of several scandals, Marilyn Monroe<\/a> was something far more subversive, according to two exhibitions that will herald what has been nicknamed \u201cthe summer of Marilyn\u201d.<\/p>\n

To mark the centenary of her birth, Monroe is being celebrated by leading British cultural institutions as a performer of sharp comic intelligence, a canny architect of her own image, and a woman who reshaped the possibilities for female stardom on screen.<\/p>\n

A sweeping two-month season at the British Film Institute (BFI) will revisit her filmography, while a landmark exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery<\/a> charts the construction of her image.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarilyn Monroe was quite possibly the biggest star cinema ever saw and will ever see,\u201d said Kimberley Sheehan, the BFI\u2019s lead programmer, who curated the season. \u201cShe was the original triple threat and deserves much credit for crafting her own image and stardom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star opens on 1 June and runs to the end of July, bringing together Monroe\u2019s most celebrated performances across three strands: Star Attractions (musicals and comedies), Dramatic Turns (serious roles), and Scene Stealers (smaller but pivotal appearances).<\/p>\n

Monroe, starring in the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire. Photograph: PR Image\/BFI<\/p>\n

Sheehan said: \u201cI hope audiences come to discover or rediscover the dynamite presence she brings to films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, as well as the heartbreaking depth of The Misfits. Even smaller roles, with scene-stealing turns in Clash by Night and All About Eve, reveal the range and nuance she possessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

From her first major role in Ladies of the Chorus (1948) to her final unfinished project Something\u2019s Got To Give (1962), Monroe worked with Hollywood\u2019s biggest directors and onscreen talent, building a career that moved between effervescent comedy and increasingly complex dramatic work.<\/p>\n

The BFI said the season invites audiences to look beyond the myth and reassess Monroe as a pioneering creative force: a dynamic performer who challenged the studio system, protested poor-quality scripts, and became the first woman since the silent era to set up her own production company.<\/p>\n

Central to the celebration is BFI Distribution\u2019s re-release of The Misfits (1961), Monroe\u2019s final completed film, in cinemas across the UK and Ireland. Directed by John Huston and written by Arthur Miller, Monroe\u2019s then husband, it tells the story of drifting cowboys and broken relationships in the Nevada desert. Monroe stars opposite Clark Gable asa newly-divorced woman who falls for a disillusioned cowboy.<\/p>\n

Sheehan said Monroe\u2019s cultural saturation had often eclipsed her work. \u201cTo many audiences, Monroe is an icon first and a performer second,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ll know the image, the gossip, the tragedies, but they might not know the films.<\/p>\n

Monroe in The Misfits, which is being re-released by BFI and available in cinemas across the UK and Ireland this summer. Photograph: PR Image\/BFI<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to revisit them, particularly now, when her image is endlessly commodified \u2013 even used as one of the most common prompts in AI-generated images. When you come back to the films, you see the real human performer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait runs at the National Portrait Gallery from June to September, bringing together works by some of the most celebrated artists and photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Andy Warhol, Pauline Boty and Richard Avedon.<\/p>\n

The exhibition explores Monroe\u2019s role in constructing her own image and her lasting influence on visual culture. It also features previously unseen photographs from Life magazine \u2013 intimate portraits taken by Allan Grant at Monroe\u2019s Brentwood home, in Los Angeles, the day before her death in August 1962.<\/p>\n

Born on 1 June 1926, Monroe remains a defining presence in popular culture. From the early pin-up photographs taken when she was a young model named Norma Jeane, to the final images of her snapped in 1962, she was one of the most photographed people in the world.<\/p>\n

Monroe, starring in The Seven Year Itch. Photograph: PR Image\/BFI<\/p>\n

The exhibition highlights her collaborative approach to image making and her creative control \u2013 not only performing for the camera but directing shoots and vetoing images she disliked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the greatest things she ever did was create the persona of\u2018Marilyn Monroe\u2019,\u201d Sheehan said, \u201cbut it was also one of her biggest challenges, because she spent much of her later career trying to break away from it. She wanted to reinvent herself \u2013 something that just wasn\u2019t done in the 1950s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drawing a comparison to contemporary stars, she continued: \u201cNow there are figures like Taylor Swift, who has her eras, or Madonna, who was a trailblazer in reinvention. Marilyn attempted that when she set up her production company but people didn\u2019t understand it, they ridiculed her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve come a long way, but there\u2019s still further to go,\u201d Sheehan added. \u201cIf Marilyn was around today, she could have been a Margot Robbie \u2013 someone with huge capital in her image, but also a terrific performer and a smart, active producer. I\u2019d like to think that, if she\u2019d lived longer, she would have had more of a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though often reduced to a sex symbol frozen in time, or a tragic figure at the centre of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-384511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}