This is a review of the
Annual Exhibition
of the
Royal Society of Portrait Painters, now on at the
Mall Galleries
until Saturday 13th May, 2023. It includes:
-
observations on what makes this exhibition different and the content of the
exhibition
- commentary on what's different this year
- portraits I particularly liked
- tips for the Mall Galleries
- a commentary on pricing for artists
Apologies to those who were expecting this blog post yesterday - but I was unavoidably detained by an urgent visit to A&E yesterday morning!
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| Mall Wall of West Gallery |
Last Thursday, the exhibition opened to the public. However, if you're unable to
visit London, you can also see the artworks online as follows:
-
RP Annual Exhibition Online (scroll down the page)
-
Albums on my Facebook Page
(links to which will be inserted here after this blog post is published)
- East Gallery
- West Gallery (tomorrow)
- North Gallery.
- NOTE: These exclude all nudity involving "parts" which FB will just take down. Which is a pity as this exhibition has a wall which I christened "the willy wall".
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| Cover of the RSPP Annual Exhibition 2023 Catalogue |
Observations about the Exhibition
The exhibition comprises
247 portrait paintings and drawings by member artists and those artists selected from the open entry.
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| One wall in the East Gallery |
Content of the RSPP Exhibition - what makes this exhibition different
The major difference is that this is very much
a one genre exhibition - relating to portrait drawings and paintings of people.
This is also the one exhibition at the Mall Galleries where artwork is not required to be for sale. We get to see a LOT of commissioned artworks which are marked up NFS i.e. 'Not for Sale'. That's because this exhibition is very much a marketing platform for those who members who work on commission. Which is also why membership of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters is so prized!
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| West Gallery - End Wall |
Commissioned Portraits
This exhibition now has many fewer 'staid and formal official portraits'. There's still enough to remind us all of one of the main occupations of career portrait painters.
However what I noticed is that such portraits also seemed to be "less stuffed shirt" and more informal - so a Bishop in his everyday suit and not in formal dress and a mitre! Or a portrait with a contextual background which is important to the client - but 'relaxes' the overall impression of the portrait.
I am left wondering if this is partly to do with the fact that's there's also more commissioned portraits of women? I'd love to know what the portrait painters think.
As a result, it's now a much more pleasant exhibition to view and review.
There's also much less of a difference between the portraits produced by members and those from the Open Entry.
I well remember one year that I commented to a senior bod in the society that the West Gallery (full of stuffed shirts portraits) was empty and all the visitors were in the North Gallery - where they had relegated all the artwork from the open entry. The artwork in that gallery was at the time much more relaxed, more colourful and more innovative. I think maybe the point was taken on board as I've seen a gradual and continuous shift away from the way the exhibition used to look.
Indeed the explanation about the exhibition now starts with the following statement! So maybe a marked shift in attitude as well?
This exhibition presents the very best in portraiture in all its variety and diversity
I thought the portrait study of Sir David Attenborough well illustrated a shift in
"how to paint a commission"
I very much liked the new area devoted to Commissions. It's part of a gallery and yet set aside making this less confusing for visitors and more private for clients. I also like the fact that some attention has been paid to providing nice comfy seats for prospective clients. Overall, it looks much more professional.
I often wonder why more attention to marketing commissions by member artists doesn't take place in other FBA Society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries.
- The mezzanine area offers an appropriate area - if the opportunity to discuss commissions were to be more clearly signposted. After all, it's not just portrait painters who do commissions!
- the website also needs more explicit signposting (i.e. top line menu) to the opportunity to commission portraits - which is present on the RP website but NOT on the Mall Galleries website
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| The new Commission Area in the East Gallery |
Open Entry
This exhibition has, I think, more open entries and more artists and artwork selected from the open entry than ever before. For the 2023 exhibition, the RP got 3,466 submissions - of which c.1,000 came from artists who live outside the UK. This is more submissions than the BP Portrait Award used to get!
It might be something to do with the fact that I have repeatedly written posts which include a section on Why it compares favourably to the BP Portrait and other portrait competitions ! ;)
I suspect the number of submissions probably has something to do with the fact that the Portrait Competition run by the National Portrait Gallery is in abeyance and will have a new sponsor when it revives. I'm expecting that to be the backend of this year. This always got a huge number of entries from international artists and it'll be interesting to see whether the Society manages to maintain this bumper number of entries in future years.
In part, I think the number of entries it attracts is because the RP have got some very good prizes open to those selected for the exhibition. Attracting and maintaining sponsorship for prizes is a very critical way of generating entries - and the associated fees which help offset the costs of the exhibition.
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| Portrait Drawings in the North Gallery |
NEW Artwork
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