Marilyn Monroe exhibition proves even cynics can't resist her charm
National Portrait Gallery's Marilyn Monroe show is exactly what you'd expect, except it somehow works. A century later, her charm still lands.
The National Portrait Gallery in London just opened what might be the most predictable show of the year. An anniversary exhibition about a dead celebrity's photographs. Yeah, you'd think the critic walking in would've already written the review in their head — tedious, obvious, another cash grab off a famous face.
Except it doesn't quite work out that way. The exhibition, running now to mark Monroe's 100th birthday, actually pulls you in. And honestly, it's almost entirely because of Monroe herself.
You start with Norma Jeane Baker. That's the teenager from 1940 in a photo booth self-portrait, brown hair, no makeup, just a regular kid looking at the camera. Then something shifts. The same person appears again and again, but transformed — the platinum blonde, the red lips, the walk, the whole manufactured-but-magnetic thing that made her a star. Photographs, paintings, film clips. All of it building this portrait of someone becoming someone else.
The show doesn't hide what happened next. It takes you through to her death at 36. Dark stuff mixed in with the glitz. And that's where the exhibition gets interesting — not in a fun way, but in the way that makes you actually think about who this person was beneath all those carefully composed shots.
Here's the tricky bit though. The exhibition shows you what Monroe wanted you to see. The radiant version. The uncontainable star she crafted. But it doesn't push much further than that. You get the image, the mythology, the carefully constructed persona. What you don't get is much sense of what was happening behind closed doors when the cameras weren't rolling. The loneliness. The failed relationships. The fact that she couldn't escape being Marilyn Monroe even when she desperately wanted to.
So yeah, it's an anniversary exhibition of celebrity photographs. Exactly what you'd expect. But Monroe's presence — whether that's her actual charisma jumping through the decades or just brilliant curation — keeps it from feeling like a total waste of time. You might even find yourself staying longer than you planned.
