Marilyn Monroe enters one hundred masterworks of painting. And now the world is invited to interpret them

Tallinn / London — For the centenary of Marilyn Monroe's birth, on June 1, 2026, the French-Italian artist Micheline Grisolame completes a singular pictorial gesture: the face of the icon enters one hundred masterworks of Western painting, from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century.

This is the MARILYN100 collection: one hundred Cyberpaintings in which Marilyn inhabits the canvases of five centuries of art history, from master to master, from one room of painting to the next. Not a quotation and not a tribute, but a genuine operation upon the image, where the myth of the twentieth century measures itself against the great models of tradition and emerges transformed. Grisolame keeps her anonymity and lets the work speak for itself.
From this artistic core now comes MARILYN100 ICONS, the device that sets the hundred works in motion across the world. The Marilyns of Micheline Grisolame are interpreted by Marilyn Monroe lookalikes worldwide: each participant chooses one of the hundred works, recreates its look through clothing, makeup and setting, and brings it back to life on Instagram.

Measuring the impact of each interpretation is the M100 Index, a weekly AI-powered ranking that analyzes public social data through a transparent and verifiable formula, updated every Tuesday. The top three winners receive original works from the collection, with a first prize valued at $11,000.
Around the hundred works the project has built a true museum without walls, alive on the page, in sound and in word. Two books accompany the project: the quadrilingual art catalogue The Breath of Silence, which presents the collection and its thesis on the progressive opening of mouths in female portraiture, and Marilyn Everywhere: The Secret Itinerary, the investigative journal signed by Stephan Grey that follows Marilyn's traces across eight european cities. The soundtrack is the ambient album Aksonance — The Breath of Silence, which gives a sonic voice to the museum without walls and to the project as a whole, accompanying both the works and the ICONS content.
The contest is international and free, open to anyone aged 18 and over, from any country. It runs from June 1 to November 30, 2026, with winners announced on December 12, 2026. The collection, the books, the music and the full rules are available at marilyn100.com.
MARILYN100 is an independent art project, not affiliated with the Estate of Marilyn Monroe or any entity holding rights to the actress's name or image. All cyberpaintings are original works by Micheline Grisolame.