National Portrait Gallery
Man Ray Portraits, National Portrait GalleryThursday, 07 February 2013
Travelling through Canada by train – more decades ago than I care to divulge here – I bought a book of Man Ray photographs at Banff in the heart of the Rockies. I spent the rest of the journey with one eye on the majestic mountains, and the other... Read more... |
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, National Portrait GallerySaturday, 12 January 2013
The first thing to say about Paul Elmsley’s portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge, which was unveiled yesterday at the National Portrait Gallery, is that it looks rather better in real life than it does in reproduction. That doesn’t make it a great... Read more... |
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012, National Portrait GalleryThursday, 08 November 2012
The Taylor Wessing Photographic… well, you get the drift. It's quite a long title for what is now one of the most fascinating and wide-ranging exhibitions of photographs mounted in London, and which goes out on tour nationally next year. It is... Read more... |
The Queen: Art and Image, National Portrait GallerySunday, 20 May 2012
The Queen is the first mass-media monarch, and still probably the most ubiquitously depicted person in history. Her 60 years on the throne is only exceeded by Victoria, and her reign has coincided, of course, with photography, film and... Read more... |
First ever exhibition of a lost princeTuesday, 08 May 2012One of the earliest known autopsy reports will go on display in a exhibition this autumn. The Lost Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart at the National Portrait Gallery will look at the extraordinary, albeit short, life of the eldest son of... Read more... |
Irek Mukhamedov dances again in LondonTuesday, 20 March 2012Former Royal Ballet leading star and Bolshoi hero Irek Mukhamedov is coming out of retirement to perform in Peter Schaufuss's Tchaikovsky Trilogy at the London Coliseum 23-28 July. He will be playing the roles of Rothbart in Swan Lake, the Queen’s... Read more... |
theASHtray: Whitney, bin men, and the NPG's 'incautious' acquisitionsSaturday, 18 February 2012
Right, out with it: who else had their Valentine’s dinner-out ruined by 36 consecutive requests for Whitney Houston? Not even the entire back-catalogue, either: just “(And I-ee-I-ee-) I…”, over and over.I mean, the basic message is all right, I... Read more... |
Lucian Freud: Portraits, National Portrait GalleryWednesday, 08 February 2012
Sitting for Lucian Freud was quite a commitment. Unlike Hockney, whom he painted and who painted him, Freud was a very slow painter and he was methodical. Paying close attention to detail and absorbed by different textures, he was intent on building... Read more... |
The First Actresses: Nell Gwynne to Sarah Siddons, National Portrait GalleryWednesday, 02 November 2011
What is it that makes an exhibition special, keeps you looking longer than you expected, ensures you think about it long after you’ve left? Obviously, the art, or in a history show, the subject, is the first thing. The installation sometimes (... Read more... |
Q&A/Gallery: Photographer Rich HardcastleTuesday, 06 September 2011
From Edinburgh to London and back, via Tatooine and Port Talbot, Rich Hardcastle has photographed playwrights and magicians, burlesque dancers and rugby captains, and regularly adorned the covers of The Big Issue, FHM and The Sunday Times Culture... Read more... |
ReAnimate: a clever, confusing night out at the NPGSaturday, 06 August 2011
With ReAnimate, the National Portrait Gallery’s Late Shift team were aiming high. The event sought to bring a free sensory experience throughout the entire building, promising to enchant the hordes away from Trafalgar Square and into a visionary... Read more... |
Three anniversaries, three portrait exhibitionsMonday, 01 August 2011
Anniversaries at the National Portrait Gallery are handy hooks for small specialist displays, and a trio has just opened.Herbert Morrison (1888-1965) is billed as the Cockney Socialist, and shown in scores of photographs, caricatures and cartoons to... Read more... |
