Posts Tagged ‘National Portrait Gallery’
A focus on the art of ballet at the National Portrait Gallery.
“Ballet in Focus” displays photography portraits of major dancers of the beginning of the 20th Century. It is possible to see works of Bassano Ltd. and of E. O. Hoppé and Bert, at the National Portrait Gallery, London, until the next 24th July. Depicting the leading stars of Ballet Russes, this show gives strong ideas of the impact they had in London and in art in general. It is also a recent news the official announcement of the discover of historic video footage featuring an extract from Diaghilev’s celebrated Ballets Russes performance in June 1928 at the annual flower festival at Montreux, Switzerland.
It was previously thought there was no film ever made of the legendary company, as Diaghilev never allowed cameras into theatre. It seems, the film was spotted wrongly labelled in the British Pathé online archive by a dance enthusiast. It was later identified by Jane Pritchard, curator of the recent major exhibition at V&A Museum “Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929” just ended one month ago.
Ballet was a popular entertainment in the past but lost his charm during the late 19th Century. The sudden outbreak of Diaghilev and his Ballet Russes in London in 1911, just one century ago, revitalised the ballet with new ideas and new perspectives. Diaghilev’s enduring influence on 20th-century art, design and fashion is irrefutable, also for the impressive collection of collaborations with the best artists of his time, including Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Goncharova, Man Ray, Bakst, De Chirico, Coco Chanel, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Debussy, Ravel and Satie, just to name a few of them. Though is a relatively small show, certainly could have a better collocation instead of being semi -hidden at the back of Room 31, in the midst of the “Camden Town and Beyond” display. However, “Ballet in Focus” with its 40 black and white photography portrait in two long double-sided cabinets enlightens the importance of this form of art.
The two main photographer of this display are Bassano and E. O. Hoppé. Nearly 30 of the photographs in the display are from the once fashionable photographic studio Bassano Ltd. The National Portrait Gallery holds the surviving archive of the Bassano studio, which comprises over 40,000 whole-plate and half-plate negatives.
Alexander Bassano (10 May 1829 – 21 October 1913) was the leading high society portraitist in Victorian London and celebrated as the photographer of the Royal Family and of leading figures in society, literature and arts. He was the second youngest child of Clemente Bassano an oilman and Italian warehouseman of Jermyn Street, London. Bassano opened his first studio in 1850 in Regent Street then moved many times in London town. In 1977, the company became “Industrial Photographic”, based in South West London. The display also includes a newly acquired portfolio of sepia photogravures published by the Fine Art Society in 1913. “Studies from the Russian Ballet by E. O.
Hoppé and Bert” features classic images of Diaghilev’s stars including Adolph Bolm, Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky. Emil Otto Hoppé (14 April 1878 – 9 December 1972) was a German-born British portrait, travel and topographic photographer active between 1907 and 1945. Born into a wealthy family in Munich, was educated in the finest schools of Munich, Paris and Vienna. He moved to London in 1900 originally to train as a financier. While working for the Deutsche Bank, he was becoming increasingly enamoured with photography. In 1907 he abandoned his financial career and opened a portrait studio. Within a few years E.O. Hoppé was the undisputed leader of pictorial portraiture in Europe. Rarely a photographer has been so famous in his own lifetime among the general public.
He was as famous as his sitters. His reputation drew to him many important personalities in politics, literature, and the arts. In the first decades of the 20th century, Hoppé photographed many leading subjects such as Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Albert Einstein, Benito Mussolini, Aldous Huxley, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Strauss, Leon Bakst, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina and other dancers of the Ballets Russes In the early 1920s he was invited to photograph, Queen Mary, King George and members of the Royal family.
In 1994 photographic art curator Graham Howe retrieved Hoppé’s photographic work from the picture library and rejoined it with the Hoppé family archive of photographs and biographical documents, reconstituting for the first time since 1954 the complete E. O. Hoppé Collection. This display in the National Portrait Gallery is a little hidden gem and it worth to pay a visit.
Published for: www.italoeuropeo.com
Direct link: http://www.italoeuropeo.com/entertaiment/arts/a-focus-on-the-art-of-ballet-at-the-national-portrait-gallery/
Camden Town Group – National Portrait Gallery
Beyond the Camden Town Group.
“Camden Town and Beyond” remarks the homonymous group of artists contribute to the English modern art, at the National Portrait Gallery until the 31st August 2011.
This fascinating display celebrates the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Camden Town Group that was composed by English Post-Impressionist artists active during the years 1911-1913.
The display also explores the consequent development of British post-impressionist ideas and style through portraits.
This display also showcases three important portraits purchased in recent times by the National Portrait Gallery.
Tailored on the major members of the group, the display is an opportunity to look at this group of artists from a different point of view.
In 1908 critic Frank Rutter created the “Allied Artists Association” (AAA), a group separate from the Royal Academy artistic societies and inspired to the French “Salon des Indépendants”.
Many of the artists who became part of the Camden Town Group exhibited with the AAA.
The painter Walter Sickert, whose presence and example were motivating forces for the group, rented several studios in Camden, the area of north-west London, where the group often gathered.
According to Bayes the group was titled ‘Camden Town’ because Sickert declared that “the district had been so watered with his tears that something important must sooner or later spring from its soil”.
The members list was closed to 16 as follow: Walter Sickert, Robert Bevan, Malcolm Drummond, Harold Gilman, Charles Ginner, Spencer Frederick Gore, James Dickson Innes, Augustus John, Henry Lamb, Wyndham Lewis, J.B. Manson, Lucien Pissarro (the son of French painter Camille Pissarro), William Ratcliffe, John Doman Turner. When Maxwell Gordon Lightfoot died, Duncan Grant replaced him.
The artists of the Camden Town Group were united by their fascination with depicting ordinary life. Their austere and ordinary subjects consisted of shabby interiors, portraits of friends and models in humble settings, domestic still-lifes and views of London streets.
Several members developed an innovative use of bold colour and fragmented brushwork. Despite some shared characteristics, the members of the group embraced a range of approaches and subsequently developed divergent styles.
The three portraits shown at the Gallery for the first time are Harold Gilman’s portrait of Spencer Gore, who was the group’s first president. A second portrait is “Supper” the Mark Gertler’s sensuous portrait of Natalie Denny, a renowned beauty, artists’ muse and, later, an influential society hostess. The third one is Gilman’s outstanding portrait of the painter Stanislawa Bevan.
The display of the two portraits of Stanislawa Bevan, one by Gilman with another one by Robert Bevan, is of particular importance. During her lifetime Stanislawa Bevan was prevented from joining the Camden Town Group because she was a woman. This display now recognises her as a key figure in the circle of artists.
National Portrait Gallery acquired these three new portraits through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme that enables taxpayers to transfer important works of art, and other heritage objects, into public ownership while paying Inheritance Tax. The taxpayer is given the full open market value of the item.
The Acceptance in Lieu scheme is administered by MLA on behalf of the Government and it is one of the most important means of enriching collections of public museums, libraries and archival offices.
In this instance, the executors of the estate of Natalie Bevan offered the portraits on condition that the works were allocated to the National Portrait Gallery.
The Camden Town Group involvement with ordinary life and experimentation with new means of expression left a significant artistic legacy in Britain.
Published for: www.italoeuropeo.co.uk
Direct link: http://www.italoeuropeo.com/entertaiment/arts/-beyond-the-camden-town-group./
Taylor Wessing Prize 2010 – National Portrait Gallery
Photography prize at the National Portrait Gallery.
Clare_Shilland_Merel
The winner of the Prize is David Chancellor, second shortlisted Panayiotis Lamprou, followed by Jeffrey Stockbridge and fourth prize to Abbie Trayler-Smith.The special “ELLE Commission 2010” prize goes to Clare Shilland.
There’s a huge use of social issue related subjects.
On display at the exhibition there are also portraits of famous people, like former MP Tony Blair, Rolling Stones member Charlie Watts, couturier Ozwald Boateng, artist David Hockney and designer Nicky Haslam.
Notably in this exhibition many hitting subjects dealing with issues of our society are used by photographer including prostitution, addiction, homelessness, obesity, nudity, hunting, old age, femininity, handicap, poverty, famine.
This year the winner is David Chancellor with Huntress with Buck, a portrait of 14 year old Josie Slaughter from Alabama on her first hunting trip to South Africa. Chancellor has been awarded with £12,000. He says: “Josie had hunted her buck earlier in the day and was returning to camp. As we arrived, the sun set below the cloud cover and I had almost unreal light for around a minute. The contrast between the peace and tranquillity of the location, plus Josie’s ethereal beauty and the dead buck, was what I wanted to explore. Here was a vulnerability and yet also a strength”. In this portrait Chancellor is strongly inspired by the African set, giving to his work a particular artistic quality of light. He spent two days with the Josie and her family, shooting Kodak 160VC 120 film on a Mamiya 7 II camera. The portrait is from his project documenting hunters, the hunted and spaces associated with hunting.
Born in Solihull, after a fruitless career in banking, Chancellor (1961) started with photography. Now based in both London and Cape Town, he shoots documentary reportage and portraiture for a range of clients, and regularly works on projects for NGOs. Named Nikon Press Photographer of the Year three times, he also received a World Press Photo Award earlier this year.
The Second Prize goes to the Greek photographer Panayiotis Lamprou for Portrait of my British wife from the series Human Presence. The portrait was taken at the couple’s summerhouse on the small island of Schinousa in the Aegean Sea on a hot summer’s day. The woman beneath her T-shirt is not wearing anything. This particular reminds to the long and debated history of Art and expression. She is naked clearly stating Courbet “The Origins of the World” (now showed in D’Orsay Museum, Paris) which inspired Lamprou in portraying his wife. Awarded with £3,000, it is the first time this work has been on display in the UK. It has been included in numerous publications and sixteen exhibitions throughout Europe.
Lamprou says: “I never showed it to anyone. Only she knew about it. When she saw it she said that even if it wasn’t a nude the photograph has the same power to express. I can describe the portrait as Independence and Love, Devotion and Freedom”.
Panayiotis Lamprou, born in Athens in 1975, studied with founder of Photography Circle, Platon Rivellis, and in Centro di Ricerca e Archiviazione della Fotografia in Spilimbergo, near Udine in Italy.
The Third Prize goes to Jeffrey Stockbridge, from USA, for Tic Tac and Tootsie (twin sisters Carroll and Shelly McKean) from the series Nowhere but Here. Awarded with £2,000, it was taken in Kensington, North Philadelphia. The portrayed are Tic Tac and Tootsie, 20-year-old twin sisters Carroll and Shelly McKean. The twin sisters started to live on the street at nineteen and have been homeless for a year when Stockbridge met them. They both suffer from insomnia: they are addicted to Xanex and have turned to prostitution to supply their habit. Stockbridge says: “Enduring unthinkable pain on a daily basis, the sisters are both incredibly strong and weak at the same time. Caught in the grip of their addiction, they do whatever it takes to survive, except for getting clean”.
Jeffrey Stockbridge is born 1982 in Woodbine, Maryland. Since his graduation in 2005, he has broadly exhibited in the USA and received many grants and awards for his projects documenting neglected urban parts of Philadelphia.
David_Chancellor_Huntress_with_Buck
The Fourth Prize goes to Abbie Trayler-Smith for Untitled 2 from the series Childhood Obesity. Her shortlisted portrait was taken on the second meeting with a girl called Chelsea, from Shine, a group in Sheffield which helps teenagers deal with obesity. Trayler-Smith says: “Whilst talking about how it feels to live with the prejudices that come with being overweight, I looked away to change the film in my camera. When I looked back the picture was suddenly there. I shot one frame”.
Born in South Wales (1977) Abbie Trayler-Smith, self-trained, worked as a photographer for The Daily Telegraph, Time Magazine, GEO, Marie Claire, Tatler, Guardian Weekend, Oxfam, UNICEF and BBC Worldwide among others. Her project on asylum seekers in the UK, Still Human, Still Here, was exhibited at HOST Gallery, London, (2009) with an accompanying film which won both the Nikon Award 2009 and the PPY Best Multimedia Piece 2009.
The winner of the “ELLE Commission 2010” is Clare Shilland, 36, for her portrait Merel. For the second year running, ELLE magazine, the world’s biggest-selling fashion magazine, will commission a photographer selected for the Taylor Wessing Prize exhibition to shoot a feature story.
Shilland, from South London, met Merel in Milan when she shot her for an Italian magazine. Later she asked Merel if she can photograph her for exhibition Girls! Girls! Girls! The portrait was made out of the city of Antwerp.
Shilland has shot for clients including Marni, Hardy Amies, Warner Music, Lyle & Scott and H&M, and her photographs have been published in i-D, Italian Rolling Stone, GQ Style and Teen Vogue amongst others.
A fully illustrated book of the exhibition is available by critic and editor Lucy Davies (The Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph SEVEN Magazine and Telephoto) and by Richard McClure interviewing the winners.
All photo have been granted from National Portrait Gallery.
Published for: www.italoeuropeo.co.uk
Thomas Lawrence exhibition – National Portrait Gallery
LONDON- A tribute to portraitist Thomas Lawrence.
LONDON: “Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance” exhibition opens its doors from 21st October 2010 to 23rd January 2011.
The exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery the first for 30 years and displays 54 portraits coming from all over the world.
Lawrence was one of the most famous portraitists of UK, very innovative.
The exhibition is in chronological order of portraits.
Lawrence was a prodigy. He started to portrait as a child. Once moved to London he became more and more famous. He was appointed President of the Royal Academy in 1820 and remained until he died in 1830.
The National Portrait Gallery hosts the show, organised in collaboration with Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven in USA, where it will be next year.
The first exhibition in the UK dedicated to Lawrence, for 30 years, displays 54 dazzling portraits some seen in public for the first time.
Works on display are coming from around the world, remarkably The Royal Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Palace of Versailles and Art Institute of Chicago, and including also many portraits from private collections.
The greatest paintings and drawings of Thomas Lawrence are present. Some of them are rarely to be seen in public.
This exhibition makes people understand why Lawrence work is so important, firstly placing him within the bigger framework of the art debates, networks of patronage and politics of his day. An unmarked point of view of this exhibition is about Lawrence production, about technical innovations, both as a draughtsman and painter, and also about his international reputation.
Lawrence can be called today a master of the Regency period though in the past his name was linked to advertisement environment.
Beginning as a child prodigy working in pastels, Thomas Lawrence succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as Britain’s greatest portrait painter. He has represented Regency high- society with dazzling brushwork and an innovative use of colour.
At the exhibition entrance a recently rediscovered self- portrait of Lawrence one of his earliest experiments in oil painting.
The first room “Arrival on the scene: the 1790s” contains important portraits, like “Arthur Atherley” and “Elizabeth Farren” displayed at the 1790 Royal Academy exhibition, and allowed Lawrence to break in the London art world, when he was mostly unknown and 21 years old only.
The second room “Delineating a life: Lawrence as draughtsman” contains drawn portraits. It is possible to see examples of the most innovative technique Lawrence created: drawing predominantly using chalks directly on primed canvas as preliminary stage of painting. To be highlighted here the “Thomas Holcroft and William Godwin” and “Mrs Angerstein Nursing”.
Next gallery is “New ambition: experimentation in portraiture” and it covers the period from 1805 to 1815 in which Lawrence started to innovate, pushing his art into new territories. From this room “Sir Francis Baring, John Baring and Charles Wall”, “John Philip Kemble as Cato” and “Isabella Wolff” the latter represents a figure of inspiration for Lawrence and maybe a lover.
The fourth room “Lawrence in Europe: international career and reputation” starts from the year 1815. After the Napoleon final defeat, Lawrence could achieve the reputation of greatest British artist by travelling Europe and painting a series of monumental portraits of the sovereigns and military leaders allied in the wars, such as “Charles Archduke of Austria”, “Charles Lambton” and “Pope Pius VII”.
Last room is “Court, Academy and Society: the 1820s”. Lawrence success was huge at that time. Here to be highlighted are “Princess Sophia”, “”Arthur Wellesley” and the famous “Earl of Aberdeen”.
Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was a leading English portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy. He was born in Bristol in a troubled family. Moving in Devizes in 1773 his father started to use Thomas talent for drawing and reciting poetry to make money. Thomas formal schooling was limited but aged ten he was enough famous to be mentioned in local newspapers.
They moved to Bath, in 1779, his father was declared bankrupted and from then on it was Thomas to support his family with his portraitist work.
In 1787 Lawrence arrived in London. In 1788 he participated at the Royal Academy annual exhibition and started to be famous. In 1789 Lawrence received his first royal commission from Windsor.
He was an innovative artist in using subject. For many of his portraits there were critics or great acclaims, creating a real artist figure that was important not only for art but also for the entire society.
In 1791 Lawrence was elected an associate of the Royal Academy and the following year King George III appointed him “painter-in-ordinary to His Majesty”.
Though receiving many commissions, Lawrence was in financial difficulties. He was a hard worker and didn’t live extravagantly, but debts would stay with him for the rest of life. Biographers couldn’t discover the source of his debts, maybe related to his generosity, his inability to keep accounts and his costly collection of Old Master.
Lawrence never gets married and his romantic life was tantalized by complicated relationship beginning with the Siddons sisters. In later years Elizabeth Croft would provide him with companionship. Lately was Isabella Wolff who biographer suggests that Lawrence may have been the father of her son.
His international reputation was ensured when the Prince Regent commissioned portraits of all the foreign leaders involved in the downfall of Napoleon.
After travelling Europe Lawrence arrived back in London in 1820 and was voted the new President of the Royal Academy, a position he will hold until his death in 1830. In 1822 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society “for his eminence in art”.
He died suddenly on 7th January 1830 few months later his friend Isabella Wolff.
This exhibition is the first in Britain since 1979. Some of the works are absolutely superb. It is strongly suggested to pay a visit.
CONFERENCE AND EVENTS
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