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Though often reduced to a sex symbol frozen in time, or a tragic figure at the centre of several scandals, Marilyn Monroe was something far more subversive, according to two exhibitions that will herald what has been nicknamed “the summer of Marilyn”.

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.

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

“Marilyn Monroe was quite possibly the biggest star cinema ever saw and will ever see,” said Kimberley Sheehan, the BFI’s lead programmer, who curated the season. “She was the original triple threat and deserves much credit for crafting her own image and stardom.”

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

Sheehan said: “I 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.”

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

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.

Central to the celebration is BFI Distribution’s re-release of The Misfits (1961), Monroe’s final completed film, in cinemas across the UK and Ireland. Directed by John Huston and written by Arthur Miller, Monroe’s 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.

Sheehan said Monroe’s cultural saturation had often eclipsed her work. “To many audiences, Monroe is an icon first and a performer second,” she said. “They’ll know the image, the gossip, the tragedies, but they might not know the films.

“I think it’s really important to revisit them, particularly now, when her image is endlessly commodified – 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.”

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.

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

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.

The exhibition highlights her collaborative approach to image making and her creative control – not only performing for the camera but directing shoots and vetoing images she disliked.

“One of the greatest things she ever did was create the persona of‘Marilyn Monroe’,” Sheehan said, “but 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 – something that just wasn’t done in the 1950s.”

Drawing a comparison to contemporary stars, she continued: “Now 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’t understand it, they ridiculed her.”

“We’ve come a long way, but there’s still further to go,” Sheehan added. “If Marilyn was around today, she could have been a Margot Robbie – someone with huge capital in her image, but also a terrific performer and a smart, active producer. I’d like to think that, if she’d lived longer, she would have had more of a chance.”