Face to Face SUMMER 2006 My Favourite Portrait by Fergus Greer BP Portrait Award 2006 Benjamin Zephaniah in conversation with Sandy Nairne Angus McBean, Master of Invention From the Director The 150th Anniversary celebrations continue successfully, with the Searching for Shakespeare and Icons and Idols exhibitions receiving a wonderful response from critics and the public alike. The first goes on to the British Art Center at Yale and the second COVER to York City Art Gallery. We have also had outstanding concerts with the support of the Dorothy Dickson (detail) Performing Right Society Foundation as well as the major Anniversary seminar ‘Picturing by Angus McBean, 1938 Britons’ at the end of March. The Anniversary Time-line and the smaller Anniversary © The President and Fellows displays are proving to be of great interest. This year’s BP Portrait Award and the Angus of Harvard College McBean Portraits are next in the programme, and take us through to the autumn when we present David Hockney: Portraits, a fifty-year overview of all his portrait work. This exhibition has already been displayed to acclaim at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, with whom we have organised it, and will be at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art over the summer before opening at the Gallery in October. One of the highlights of the spring was the Portrait Gala, when 550 guests attended a special Anniversary celebration to raise significant funds for future acquisitions through the ‘Collecting for the Future’ appeal. The combination of sponsorship from Herbert Smith and Dom Pérignon, gifts and help in kind, ticket sales, the Silent Auction, the raffle and the sale of the 150 Mystery Portrait Postcards contributed by artists and friends of the Gallery raised more than £300,000 from the evening. I am very grateful to all those that made this such a success. One of the smaller displays that caught the eye this spring has been the selection of recent drawings by Stuart Pearson Wright under the title Most People are Other People. Pearson Wright, previous BP Portrait Award winner and creator of the much admired commissioned portrait of J.K. Rowling, had once considered life as an actor for himself. The drawings certainly display a great empathy with their subjects, and cover a range of British talent from senior figures such as Alan Rickman and Penelope Wilton to younger up-and-coming stars such as Nonso Anozie and Tom Hollander. A complementary display, including other drawings from the series, runs at the National Theatre from 10 April to 20 May. The artist has himself published an accompanying catalogue, which includes an interview with Timothy Spall – available from the Gallery bookshop. A number of these drawings have now been acquired for the Collection. The new display at Beningbrough Hall near York is an opportunity for the Gallery, in partnership with the National Trust and with the support of the Heritage Lottery ABOVE Fund, to make more of the eighteenth-century collection available in new ways. The Alan Rickman innovative display on the top floor, titled Making Faces, takes visitors on a journey Penelope Wilton through the creation of a portrait, offering insight into the role of portraiture and the by Stuart Pearson Wright, processes of commissioning and sitting. The Trust has fitted the Hall with a lift and we 2004–5 hope that the property will become a good example of accessibility as well as offering a superb interior complemented by great paintings. The displays at Beningbrough Hall, like those at Montacute in Somerset and Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales, are part of the Gallery’s extensive national programme. The John Donne Appeal, which featured in the last issue of Face to Face, is making good progress with more than a third of the funds raised at the time of going to print. For further information or to make a donation, contact Charlotte Savery on 020 7312 2444 / [email protected] or to donate online www.npg.org.uk/johndonne. I very much hope that the Gallery will be able to announce this acquisition as one of the successes for the Anniversary year. Thank you for your support. Sandy Nairne DIRECTOR THERE ARE FOUR THINGS that are needed for me to MY FAVOURITE be passionate about a portrait in whatever medium. PORTRAIT First and foremost, it must move me: that sense of FERGUS GREER metaphysical response when seeing a work, almost like rapture. Secondly, the trail of clues to the subject(s), the artist and then their relationship; if it is well done one feels the need to revisit a work continually and find new information to feed one’s imagination about any of the three. Thirdly, the way that the artist has carried out the work, and the quality of his representation within Fergus Greer started by assisting that medium. several photographers; he then Fourthly, the time and place and the social context of quickly secured a contract with the Sunday Times Magazine the period and how it is represented within the picture: through his depiction in his father’s books is one of the (for covers) and other magazines. fashion according to the artist. most loved and renowned characters throughout the In 1997 he moved to Los Angeles world, equalled only by the likes of Mickey Mouse! This ‘little’ picture, by Howard Coster, belies the story to pursue his career. He has exhibited in a number of it depicts. Here we have what would appear to be little The father’s hand rests lovingly and protectively on exhibitions, including the Venice more than a family portrait and yet when we learn top of his son’s. Biennale 2005, as well as winning of the subject matter it begins to take on a whole The part each subject plays and reflects to the numerous awards. He has recently resonance of further meanings and interest. moved back to the UK and others and the dynamic of love going through them continues to work for a variety A.A. Milne, the author of such great iconographic are so clearly apparent. One has to ask whether, if of publications including Vanity children’s books as Winnie-the-Pooh, sits tucked into a A.A. Milne had realised the significance of his books, Fair, New Yorker, Fortune, Marie narrow window-seat, his face appearing through written for his son, he would have so openly depicted Claire, GQ and Esquire. the shadows cast by the back light of the his son as the subject. Imagine what it must have window. He bears a rather awkward expression, been like being Christopher Robin. ABOVE LEFT Alan Alexander Milne; maybe of discomfort; disapproval; or simply that We can only guess whether Howard Coster posed this Christopher Robin Milne; the photographer doesn’t engage him. Sitting picture, or if when asked to sit down they fell into Winnie-the-Pooh confidently on his lap, wrapped in his father’s arms, this natural pose, the back-lit image adding to the by Howard Coster, 1926 is his son Christopher Robin, made world-famous sense of intimacy between the three, as they sit ABOVE by his depiction in his father stories. Christopher Robin looking expectantly at the camera. Self-portrait in turn, has gently resting against him, waving directly by Fergus Greer, 1995 at the observer, Winnie-the-Pooh, his teddy bear, who A moving tribute to the artist and his subjects! © Fergus Greer THIS SUMMER the Gallery is celebrating contemporary PRINTED portraiture with its new book The Portrait Now. PORTRAITS Launched to acclaim from artists and critics alike, and produced by the Gallery’s publishing team, the book presents over ninety of the best contemporary portraits from across the world. Sandy Nairne will be discussing the continuing appeal of portraiture with Ekow Eshun, Director of the ICA, at the Gallery on Thursday 15 June 2006 (for tickets call 020 7306 0055 – price £5/£3 concessions). June marks the publication of the BP Portrait Award 2006 catalogue, which features a fascinating text by Margaret Forster about how portraits have inspired her biographical writing, and what they tell us about the history of women’s achievements. The Portrait Now (above) is We are celebrating Lewis Morley’s iconic shots of available from the Gallery Christine Keeler, and we have worked with award- at the special price of £16.99 winning designers Art Meets Matter to produce this (published price £20), and the BP 2006 catalogue at £6.99 rather ingenious foldaway chair (right), which can be (published price £7.50). The delivered by post. Keeler Portrait chair (left) And any aspiring curator who wishes to create their is available at £39.95. Prints, starting at £5 for A4 size, can own gallery of portraits should pay a visit to the also be ordered via the website. Gallery’s main shop where our new Portrait Printer is To order copies of all Gallery producing bigger, better (and cheaper) reproductions publications ring 020 7321 from the Gallery’s Collection. 6624 or visit the website. BP PORTRAIT WITH A RECORD 1,114 ENTRIES this year, the annual AWARD BP Portrait Award opens on 15 June. The number of entries signifies both the high-profile nature of the 15 June–17 September Award and the continued fascination with portraiture 2006 worldwide. The Award is the springboard for many Wolfson Gallery young artists’ careers and a great hunting ground for private individuals seeking artists for a commission. Sponsored by BP For Phil Hale, who won second prize in 2002, and was subsequently commissioned to paint the composer Thomas Adès in a Jerwood-sponsored commission for the Gallery, the recognition enabled him to concentrate full-time on his work as an artist.