portraits
Gallery: Christina Broom's Soldiers and SuffragettesSaturday, 20 June 2015
There were female pioneers of photography before Christina Broom, most notably Julia Margaret Cameron. And others have hidden their light under a bigger bushel: Vivian Meier's body of work remained stashed away only to be discovered after her death... Read more... |
Cornelius Johnson, National Portrait GallerySaturday, 02 May 2015
It’s far too easy to think about the history of art as a series of class acts, with one superlative achievement following another. Exhibitions tend to encourage this view, and the notion of a superstar artist is key to persuading us that the latest... Read more... |
YZ Kami, Gagosian GalleryTuesday, 14 April 2015
The Iranian-born New York resident painter YZ Kami, now in his mid-fifties, continually plays with our hunger to look at “reality” while being seduced by abstraction and repetition. In 17 canvases, painted over the past two years, Kami explores two... Read more... |
Wellington: Triumphs, Politics and Passions, National Portrait GallerySunday, 22 March 2015
One masterpiece and two superb portraits both dominate and sum up in vivid fashion the complex personality, long life and astonishing trajectory of the first Duke of WellingtonThere were something like 200 portraits done in his lifetime. The... Read more... |
Joshua Reynolds, Wallace CollectionSaturday, 21 March 2015
The grand but domestic setting of Hertford House, home of the Wallace Collection, makes a fitting backdrop to an exhibition of paintings by Joshua Reynolds. The Marquesses of Hertford acquired some 25 paintings by Reynolds in the artist's lifetime,... Read more... |
Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends, National Portrait GalleryWednesday, 11 February 2015
Oh, Dr Pozzi! This gorgeous man is garbed in a red wool, full-length robe, almost completely obscuring his elegantly gleaming white shirt. The shirt collar frames his face, casting light, and its frilled cuffs emphasise his improbably long-fingered... Read more... |
Self: Image and Identity, Turner ContemporaryWednesday, 04 February 2015
It seems only right that Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s last Self-portrait, 1640-1 (pictured below right), saved for the nation last year as a result of a very public campaign, should now embark on a tour of the country as much in recognition of the 10,000... Read more... |
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2014, National Portrait GallerySunday, 16 November 2014
It is hard to know whether the thematic and stylistic threads running through this year’s Taylor Wessing Prize are evidence of some general shift in approach, or simply reflect the judges’ tastes. In any case, where last year’s shortlist featured... Read more... |
Giovanni Battista Moroni, Royal AcademyWednesday, 29 October 2014
Written in the 16th century, Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Artists continues to underpin our understanding of the Renaissance, and its author is blamed, often with some justification, for a multitude of art historical anomalies. But there can be... Read more... |
Schama on Rembrandt: Masterpieces of the Late Years, BBC TwoSunday, 19 October 2014
The chatty, loquacious, exuberant Simon Schama, whose seminal 1987 book on Holland in the 17th century, The Embarrassment of Riches, transformed the anglophone’s understanding of the Dutch Republic, describes himself as historian, writer, art critic... Read more... |
Tony Blair by Alastair AdamsSunday, 22 December 2013
“Repellent” is one word I’ve heard to describe Alastair Adams’ new portrait of Tony Blair, but I don’t know if that’s a reaction to the painting or the subject. In either case, I can’t say I share that gut-reaction. Most of the portraits in the... Read more... |
Bob Dylan: Face Value, National Portrait GallerySaturday, 24 August 2013
Face Value – heh, who’d have thought to come up with that title for an exhibition of portraits? Yeah, it’s not particularly clever, but there’s something of the contrarian mischief-maker in it all the same, for in the 50 years that Bob Dylan has... Read more... |
