The National Portrait Gallery in London contains what is essentially a chronological history of Britain through portraiture. Yet the gallery is currently undergoing major refurbishments, and so the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Canberra will play host to over 80 works from its vast collection. As NPG curator Joanna Gilmour says of the London portraits, “It starts with Elizabethan and Tudor period portraits and goes right through to contemporary times.”
Assembled from works usually on permanent display in London, Shakespeare to Winehouse includes portraits of well-known historical figures created by artists like Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud, Peter Paul Rubens and Tracey Emin. Rather than presenting portraits chronologically, the NPG has curated six themes—Fame, Power, Love and Loss, Identity, Innovation and Self Portraits— to allow images created centuries apart to be exhibited side by side. “By doing it this way, we were able to focus on how artists have addressed the same ideas across history—whether they are making portraits 500 years ago or today,” says Gilmour.
One of the most significant works in the show is a small painting of William Shakespeare c. 1600-1610 by John Taylor, thought to be the only remaining portrait the playwright sat for during his lifetime. “It was the first work NPG London acquired when they were founded in 1856 and it rarely leaves London,” Gilmour reveals. “It’s a humble work, it’s not very big and the artist hasn’t gone to any trouble to make him look like more than just a regular person.”
Gilmour also highlights a portrait of the Brontë sisters by their brother Patrick, as “it speaks volumes about the challenges women writers faced in the 1800s”, and Shirin Neshat’s 2018 portrait of activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai. “Neshat’s portrait of Malala is another smaller work, it doesn’t have to be on a large scale because her gaze is so strong and direct. To be able to look into the eyes of people like Malala Yousafzai and get a sense of their inner being is really inspiring.”
Shakespeare to Winehouse
National Portrait Gallery
12 March—17 July
This article was originally published in the March/April 2022 print edition of Art Guide Australia.
65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art is an extraordinary account of the unique art of this continent, published alongside a landmark exhibition at the Potter Museum of Art. Necessary and urgent, it tells the story of Indigenous Australian art; a new art history unlike anything we’ve seen. For Jane O’Sullivan, it’s a remarkable and must-read book.
In a new series of illustrated postcards available as a free gift with purchase only at the Art Guide Bookstore, Oslo Davis takes on classic and contemporary art terms and genres and reimagines what they could be referring to.
With so much to choose from, we’ve rounded up the major summer exhibitions in each capital city, open all summer long. Spanning Yayoi Kusama, Magritte, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, and many more.
bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country, curated by Jonathan Jones and now showing at Bundanon, highlights a long history of Indigenous art on the New South Wales south coast, with works and installations from Jones, Aunty Julie Freeman, Aunty Cheryl Davison, and Mickey of Ulladulla.
Melbourne-born figurative artist and ceramicist Rob McHaffie takes a global view of human idiosyncrasy. His biggest exhibition to date, now showing at Bendigo Art Gallery, covers over a decade of his painting practice.
Ahead of the National Gallery of Victoria’s major retrospective on singular Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, we invited four artists to respond to the influence of Kusama on their own practice—and meditate on what her work means to them.
