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Thursday, April 17, 2014

Shortlist announced for BP Portrait Award 2014

Two elderly women and a homeless man painted by an international shortlist of three male artists are in competition for the £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2014.

These are:
  • Thomas Ganter (Germany) for Man with a Plaid Blanket
  • David Kassan (USA) for Letter to my Mom and
  • Richard Twose (UK) for Jean Woods.

The second and third prizes in the 35th year of this internationally prestigious art competition are worth £10,000 and £8,000.  

The winner of the BP Young Artist Award of £7,000 will also be announced at the Awards Evening on the evening of Tuesday 24 June 2014 (the date is in my diary!)  I really like the idea that nobody has any idea who this will be until the night itself.  Should make for a big turnout by those aged 18 to 30! 

Exhibition

Man with a Plaid Blanket
by Thomas Ganter, 2013
160 x 60 cm oil on canvas
© Thomas Ganter
The BP Portrait Exhibition will be held in London, Sunderland and Edinburgh:
  • the National Portrait Gallery in London (26 June – 21 September 2014). Admission is free - and this is always a very popular exhibition with lots of visitors. 
  • Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens (4 October, 2014 – 16 November, 2014) and 
  • The Scottish National Portrait Gallery (28 November – 12 April, 2015.)

Artists shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2014

I've got the high resolution images of these portraits and I have to say I'm extremely impressed by all three and can make a case for each of them winning.

My gut says Ganter will win. There's something very penetrating and yet enduring about that portrait and themes it raises. Plus I've never ever seen another painting like it in the BP and originality counts for a lot.

Thomas Ganter

Age: 40
Nationality: German
Occupation: Artist and illustrator
Current home: Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Art education: ?
Previous appearances in this award: ?
Website: none
Subject: Karel, a homeless man
‘After being in a museum, I saw a homeless man and was stunned by a similarity: the clothes, the pose, and other details resembled what I just saw in various paintings. However, this time I was looking at a homeless person wrapped in a blanket and not at the painting of a saint or noble in their elaborate garment. By portraying a homeless man in a manner reserved for nobles or saints, I tried to emphasise that everyone deserves respect and care. Human dignity shouldn’t be relative or dependent on socio-economic status’. 
His shortlisted portrait invites the viewer to contemplate the coexistence of wealth and poverty.

Karel, who tries to earn some money by cleaning car windscreens in the artist’s neighbourhood, attended five sittings for the portrait. After these, in which the head and the hands were painted, Ganter used a life-sized doll, and painted the clothes and the blanket before finally adding the artificial flower at the bottom right.

Letter to my Mom
by David Jon Kassan, 2013
124.5 x 81 cm oil on aluminium panel
© David Jon Kassan

David Jon Kassan

Age: 37
Nationality: American - born in Little Rock, Arkansas
Occupation: Artist
Current home: Brooklyn, New York
Art education: ? however he has two lists of recommended books and recommended materials
Previous appearances in this award: ?
Website: http://www.davidkassan.com
Blog: http://blog.davidkassan.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kassan
Interview with the artist on Youtube
Subject: Letter to my Mom is a portrait of his mother.

You can see much larger images of this portrait on his website.

His portrait is the product of a request to his mother and father to sit for him in his studio in New York City while his parents made a brief stop on their way to Europe.
‘My work is very personal and heartfelt. It’s my visual diary, so my family and loved ones make up a large part of what and why I paint. My parents have always been inspirational to paint. This portrait is a letter to my mom, who hates it when I paint her. But I tell her in the painting that by painting her, it is my way of spending time with her, contemplating our relationship and time together, my earliest memories’. The Hebrew text painted onto the portrait above the sitter reads: ‘Dear Mom,/ This painting is my way to spend more time with you./ My way to meditate on our life together./ And all of the earliest memories I have/All of my earliest memories from you’.
Mothers are perennial and enduring sitters for BP portrait artists! Kassan's mother had sat for him a few years before and was reluctant to sit for him again. In order to persuade her, he had to bribe her by offering her a painting of his son Lucas.  I think all mothers should hold out for a bribe like that!

Personally I think the letter idea has a strong appeal.

The painting also reminds me a lot of Aleah Chapin's portrait from two years ago which in a way I'm surprised about.  The notion is that "me too" paintings should be avoided at all costs.  However this is a very fine painting judging by the high resolution image I've seen.  Maybe the similarity is to do with a style of painting in New York?

My reservation about this painting is I just don't quite see a painting which doesn't include the eyes actually winning this award.

Jean Woods
by Richard Twose, 2014
90 x 60 cm oil on board
© Richard Twose

Richard Twose

Age: 51
Nationality: British
Occupation: Teacher and artist - he currently teaches Painting and Drawing and Art History at a sixth form college in Bristol
Current home: Bath
Art education: ?
Previous appearances in this award: ?
Website: http://www.richardtwose.co.uk
Subject: Jean Woods, a 76 grandmother living in Larkhall, Bath

Richard Twose first saw the sitter of his portrait, Jean Woods, when she was working in a shop in Bath. His daughter told him that she was the grandmother of a friend after he saw her again in Channel Four's documentary Fabulous Fashionistas which was a.....
Cutting Edge documentary meets six women with an average age of 80, who are determined to look fabulous, have fun and redefine old age!
After calling her and asking her to sit for him, he was struck by her professionalism as a sitter –derived from her recent experience as a fashion model and from a quality of stillness she seems to possess naturally.

He was impressed not only by her striking looks and contemporary, edgy style, but also by the depth of character in her face.
‘Sometimes as Jean was talking, especially about her much-missed late husband, she reminded me of Rembrandt's Portrait of Margaretha de Geer. Jean has a similar intensity and honesty in her gaze. I wanted to capture that sense of someone who has learnt to be almost fearless, looking forward to life still but with a great richness of experience behind her’.
It's a fine portrait and well painted. However I find Jean Woods more striking in the photographs of her - click the links above to see what I mean.

Judging Panel

This year’s judging panel are:
  • Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery (Chair)
  • Sarah Howgate, Contemporary Curator, National Portrait Gallery
  • Dr Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Holburne Museum, Bath
  • Joanna Trollope, Author
  • Des Violaris, Director, UK Arts and Culture, BP
  • Jonathan Yeo, Artist

Observations about the shortlisted works


Note that:
  • not one of the portraits is a portrait of just a head.  As I've pointed out in previous posts (see below), the panel want to know whether you can do more than paint a head - because that's what commissions for the NPG usually involve.
  • all portray the individual above the waist
  • all make a feature of the hands - demonstrating abilities in that very important area
  • colour palettes are very varied but impressive - these are people who know how to use colour
  • backgrounds are not flat - even if one is flattish

Relative sizes

I did a little exercise to check the relative sizes. This was prompted by being stunned when visiting the exhibition by the very different sizes of some of the artwork of shortlisted artists in previous years.  I cranked up Excel and starting counting cells and then overlayed the artwork - and then thought again and lined them up as if on a wall.

Relative size of the three portraits
Left to right: Ganter, Kassan and Twoze

BP Portrait Award - previous years


I've been covering the BP Portrait Award for some years and have an extensive archive of posts relating to previous competitions which I know are much studied by those contemplating an entry!

BP Portrait Award - Shortlisted artists on Making A Mark:

BP Portrait Award 2012

BP Portrait Award 2011

BP Portrait Award 2010

BP Portrait Award 2009

BP Portrait Award 2008

BP Portrait Award 2007

on

1 comment:

  1. Julie DouglasThursday, April 17, 2014

    thank you very much for this informative post. I clicked the links as you suggested to see Jean Woods and I have to agree with you, what a fine woman! I love her fashion advice to women of all ages, where she "stresses, most importantly, 'stay away from beige'. " Priceless!

    ReplyDelete

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