Virtual Tour and Award Winners: Royal Society of Portrait Painters 130th Annual Exhibition

I wasn't at the opening day of the 130th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - because I was getting my second Pfizer vaccination! (I'm planning to go Monday or Tuesday next week.)

However, you and I can take a look at the exhibition right now via 

• a VIRTUAL TOUR which is accessible via both the RP website or the Mall Galleries website  
• Those with a spot on them have some form of audio-visual media associated with them
  
• The tour by Matterport software is still very light/bright - so much so paintings seem quite pale until you close in on them.
  
• artwork in the exhibition online 

We can also view the portraits by the artists who have been awarded prizes and awards in 2021- and these are listed below - with links to both the portraits and artists' websites. 

It's interesting to note how many portraits are self-portraits or portraits of members of the family - a situation which I guess has confronted a lot of portrait painters this year.

Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition2021: Award winners 

William Lock Portrait Prize: Frances Bell RP - for Self Portrait 

£20,000 for the most timeless portrait with a real feeling for paint and its aesthetic potential. 

Self Portrait by Frances Bell

I've long been a supporter of Frances Bell whose style works incredibly well for certain sitters - particularly children and women. Besides being a masterful draughtsperson - in terms of accuracy and representation of her subject - I love her very painterly and fluid use of oil and brushwork. (She also paints great landscapes!)

Last year the same self-portrait was also selected as a finalist among another 22 paintings, from 2600 entries for the Portrait Society of America's Annual Exhibition in 2020.

Frances Bell is a full time professional portrait and landscape painter. She has shown her paintings in numerous exhibitions including the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition - where she has shown since 2005; the BP Portrait Award; and annual exhibitions of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters; the Royal Society of British Artists; the Royal Society of Marine Artists; The Society of Wildlife Artists, the Society of Women Artists. 

• Website: https://www.francesbellpaintings.co.uk
• Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/francesbellpaintings

She makes some very interesting comments about the process of creating a self-portrait in this video (below). I'm sure very many portrait painters will recognise and empathise with what she has to say

 

TIP FOR ARTISTS: Remember to film videos for websites in landscape format - not portrait - which somehow seems very ironic to me! :) 

The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture - Saied Dai RP NEAC for Portrait of the Artist's Wife

£10,000 plus the Society’s Gold Medal awarded for the most distinguished portrait in the Society’s annual exhibition. 

Saied Dai has a unique style and I can always recognise his paintings on the wall before I've looked at the catalogue. He's a figurative Artist who both lives and works in Bath.

His award is for a portrait of his wife, the artist Charlotte Sorapure - whose paintings I also like a lot!

He trained at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and was made a member of The Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2004 and The New English Art Club in 2009. He has exhibited widely. He paints on a gesso panel and describes how he works in the video below.

• Website: https://www.saieddai.co.uk/

 

The RP Award: Phoebe Dickinson for Alethea

£2,000 awarded to the artist whose work best represents the year's chosen theme - which for 2021 is 'Childhood'. The judges looked for the most interesting and engaging interpretation of the idea of 'childhood' within the parameters of portraiture. 

Four artists shortlisted for the Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station

The names of the four artists shortlisted to create the planned Windrush Monument were announced last week. Their designs for the Monument - which will be located at Waterloo Station - will be displayed around the country this summer.

 

Images of the shortlisted artists
(L to R: Jeannette Ehlers, Thomas J Price, Valda Jackson, Basil Watson)

This post covers:

• the aim of the Windrush Monument
• the shortlisted artists
• arrangements for consultation with the Caribbean community in the UK.

 

The Windrush Monument

The Windrush Monument will be a permanent tribute to a generation of arrivals from the Caribbean to Britain – from the arrival of MV Empire Windrush in 1948 and in the decades that followed.  Artist shortlist for national Windrush Monument revealed |Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Windrush Commemoration Committee 

 

The aim of the Monument

 

The intention is that the Monument will be:

• An ambitious public artwork 
• A testament to the contribution of Caribbean pioneers in communities across the United Kingdom. 
• A visible statement of shared history and heritage
• A permanent place of reflection and inspiration. 
  

Specifically the monument will recognise how the Windrush Generation have - over the last 70 years:

• enriched the history of the UK
• made invaluable contributions to all aspects of British life, from our health and transport services to our politics, businesses, literature and culture. 

That's quite a challenge for any artist!

 

Location: Waterloo Station

 

Waterloo station in London is where thousands of Windrush pioneers first arrived in London, after the M.V. Windrush docked at Tilbury, before starting new lives across the UK. 

 

The station's strong association with the stories of many members of the Windrush Generation means it was chosen as the location for the sculpture - to celebrate their arrival and contribution to the UK.

I remember vividly my own moment of arrival, as a 10 year old – stepping off the train and standing on Platform 19 at Waterloo Station. That spot, familiar to so many of us and our parents, is less than a few hundred metres from where the Windrush monument will stand in perpetuity. Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE

The intention is that the Windrush Monument will be unveiled on Windrush Day 2022.

 

Shortlisted artists

Unsurprisingly, the four artists shortlisted to design the monument are all of Caribbean descent. Two are from the UK and two are based outside the UK - but have a Caribbean heritage.

They include world renowned, established and up and coming artists working across the visual arts. 

The artists were selected by the Windrush Commemoration Committee (WCC), chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE. 

The four artists chosen to make up the final shortlist are listed below. Links to their websites are embedded in their names.

The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein by Franny Moyle

Hans Holbein the Younger - a self portrait

 

Yesterday I started listening to podcast The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein on BBC Sounds on my iPhone. 

It's Book of the Week this week - and there's an episode being broadcast every day. Each is available on BBC Sounds for 30 days from the date of the first broadcast. 

The thing I love about BBC Sounds is you can save them up and (my personal favourite) download them and then splurge on listening to a number of episodes while taking a walk - or chopping the vegetables....

The book by Franny Moyle isn't published until later this month (see below). She's apparently got a good track record of analysing painter's methods (having also written about Turner) - but I've not got to that bit yet

The reader is the theatre and television actor Sir Simon Russell Beale. I was left wondering if he was chosen for a certain likeness to Holbein himself - or maybe Henry VIII - whose portrait Holbein famously painted.....

That's because, to be honest, Beale reads rather too fast for my liking and without enough change of pace or intonation. See what you think.

However, when it comes to the book, I'm getting a very good impression. Content wise, the book is fascinating about his background and family and the ways of the world for artists and artisans in 16th century Europe. I'm looking forward to Episodes 2-5 of this story of the extraordinary life of this outstanding artist of the 16th century.

This is the synopsis.

Hans Holbein the Younger became court painter to Henry VIII and was regarded as a phenomenon in his day for his ability to bring the characters he painted to life.

His famous portrait of the Tudor King was so life like spectators fully expected arms and legs to move. One of his paintings of the dead Christ was so alarming that, when the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky saw it in 1867, he was so troubled by it that his wife had to drag him away fearing he might have an epileptic fit.

Holbein observed the extraordinary events of his century up close and painted the movers and shakers of the age including Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII, as well as the various women lined up to become the wives of the king, such as Anne of Cleves.

He was a contributor to the history of book design as well as designing jewellery, and elaborate weaponry. With a family in Basel and another in London, his life was as colourful as the times he lived through.

 

Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497 - 1543) was an extraordinarily talented draftsman and painter from a very young age. He went on to become one of the most important painters in 16th century Europe.

He has long been a favourite painter of mine - but I don't know a lot about him other than the research I did for a couple of previous posts (below) - which includes references to more information about him

• Holbein in England - and at Tate Britain - about an exhibition I can vividly remember even now - right down to where specific paintings were in the galleries - despite the fact it happened in 2007! 
• "Holbein: Eye of the Tudors" - Waldemar Januszczak's Culture Show Special tonight (January 2015) - about a programme on BBC2  
• The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt - review (2017) - which included a wonderful wall of Holbein drawings
  

 

Lady with a Squirrel
- one of my favourite Holbein portraits

 

I also produced a website About Hans Holbein - Famous Portrait Painter which I must transfer at some point to a better platform 

My sketch from
the Holbein Exhibition at the Tate (2007)
from the days when I routinely took
sketchbook, pen and coloured pencils
to all exhibitions

 

The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein by Franny Moyle

Are art galleries and museums a target for "cancel culture" or mob rule?

There appears to be a new "cancel culture" being applied to art galleries and museums.

Incidents and events promoting change

Last week the Museum of Modern Art in New York became the target of a group who want to protest about the influence of very rich people on the systems and values of art museums.

Specifically the Strike MOMA campaign were upset about a number of aspects - including:

• the existence of MOMA as a monument to the acquisition by the wealthy few at the expense of the dispossessed
  
• the fact that the Museum had allegedly said nothing about the financial ties between (the recently replaced) Leon Black, Chair of the Board of MOMA and Jeffrey Epstein
• alleged ties between specific board members and systems of power and exclusion
• disparities in the way employees are treated and the huge differentials between those at the top and those at the frontline
  

A protest took place and people got hurt - on both sides.

I think it's safe to say this might be a recurrent theme for many art galleries and museums in the future

The museum, citing safety concerns, closed its doors to the protesters who say MoMA caters too much to the interests of its wealthy donors. (New York Times)

 

The doors of the Museum of Modern Art
when they reopened - on 21st October 2019 (the day after I flew out!)
following a very extensive extension and refurbishment of MOMA
to create a reimagined presentation of modern and contemporary art.

 

This is what MOMA has to say about itself

At The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1, we celebrate creativity, openness, tolerance, and generosity. We aim to be inclusive places—both onsite and online—where diverse cultural, artistic, social, and political positions are welcome. We’re committed to sharing the most thought-provoking modern and contemporary art, and hope you will join us in exploring the art, ideas, and issues of our time. MOMA - About us

My view

 

Is rejecting philanthropy and insisting that public collections should be oriented towards social justice the best way forward for all major art galleries and museums? 

 

My views on this topic are as follows

The Obama Portraits Tour

Shortly after the photo of the latest Past President of the USA lands at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the official commissioned portraits of the 44th President - Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama - will leave on a year-long tour of the United States.

The Obama Portraits Tour

The Official Obama Portraits Tour has been organised by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery with the aim of reaching many people who would otherwise be unable to see the portraits.

Travelling so soon after they were unveiled is unprecedented and is explained by the reaction to the at the time (this is a link to the official page about the original unveiling) and since.

From the moment of their unveiling at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., in February 2018, the official portraits of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama have become iconic. Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald’s portrait of the former First Lady have inspired unprecedented responses from the public.

and 

After witnessing a woman drop to her knees in prayer before the portrait of Barack Obama, one guard said, "No other painting gets the same kind of reactions. Ever."

See also my blog post at the time The response to the Obama Portraits

The portraits are also the very first portraits of a President and his wife to be painted by African Americans - Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherrald

The five venues the Obama Portraits Tour is visiting for display are as follows. 

Links to the details are embedded in the title of the art gallery or museum.

• Art Institute of Chicago (June 18-August 15, 2021); 
• Brooklyn Museum in New York (August 27-October 24, 2021) - Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 4th Floor
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (November 7, 2021–January 2, 2022) - Resnick Pavilion
• High Museum of Art in Atlanta (January 14–March 13, 2022); 
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (March 27-May 30, 2022). no details published as yet

The choice of cities have been chosen for a mix of reasons - including both geographical and personal connections to the Obamas or the artists.

The Obama Portraits Tour will also feature 

• audio-visual elements, 
• Portrait Gallery-led teacher workshops, 
• curatorial presentations, and 
• a richly illustrated book (National Portrait Gallery and Princeton University Press).

Exhibition Catalogue: The Obama Portraits

If you are interested in the two portraits and can't get to see the portraits at either the Smithsonian or any of the five venues the portraits are touring to, you might want to consider acquiring the catalogue.

Front cover of "The Obama Portraits"

by Taína Caragol, Dorothy Moss, Richard Powell and Kim Sajet

The links below are to Amazon and will help fund the replacement for Google shutting down feedburner for email subscriptions to this blog (when I identify it!)

• The Obama Portraits (Amazon.com)
• The Obama Portraits (Amazon UK)

Publication details:

• co-published by the National Portrait Gallery and Princeton University Press
• Hardcover : 
• 152 pages
• 76 color illustrations
• Size: 7 x 9 inches