Unveiling the unconventional : Kehinde Wiley's portrait of Barack Obama / Taína Caragol -- "Radical empathy" : Amy Sherald's portrait of Michelle Obama / Dorothy Moss -- The Obama portraits, in art history and beyond / Richard J. Powell -- The Obama portraits and the National Portrait Gallery as a site of secular pilgrimage / Kim Sajet -- The presentation of the Obama portraits : a transcript of the unveiling ceremony.
Drawing on the outstanding collection of the National Portrait Gallery, this volume celebrates the variety and complexity of portraiture The National Portrait Gallery holds the world's most extensive collection of portraits: a museum of people, a gallery of stories and ideas, and a home of artistic masterpieces. Icons and Identitiesdraws together icons from Shakespeare to Audrey Hepburn alongside less well-known sitters that provide insight into the representation of identity in portraits. It also includes some intriguing surprises to reflect the diversity of the National Portrait Gallery's collection and to introduce audiences around the world to exceptional portraits of many kinds. Icons and Identitiesshows how artists, working across mediums, have revealed the visually stimulating and intellectually vibrant tradition of portrait making. The book is structured around a series of key themes and each section includes a selection of works from a range of periods. Artists include: Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Andy Warhol, Marlene Dumas and Shirin Neshat.
With just under a thousand portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, the National Portrait Gallery boasts some of the most treasured and famous official portraits of the Queen captured at key historic moments, as well as day-to-day images of the monarch at home and with family, following her journey from childhood, to princess and Queen, mother and grandmother. This publication highlights the most important portraits of Elizabeth II from the Gallery's Collection. Paintings and photographs from the birth of Elizabeth II to the present will take readers on a visual journey through the life of Britain's foremost icon. 0The book will reflect on the Queen's life, presenting family photographs alongside important formal portraits to explore how, as her reign became record-breaking, she became an iconic figure in modern British culture and history. The publication features works by key artists depicting the Queen from 1926 to the present day, including Baron, Cecil Beaton, Dorothy Wilding, Patrick Lichfield, Andy Warhol, Annie Leibovitz and David Bailey. 0This book features an introductory essay by Alexandra Schulman, exploring how the collected portraits depict the Queen throughout her life and reign, and a timeline of key historical events and moments from Elizabeth II's life.
This striking book explores contemporary portraiture from the past decade. The selection features cutting-edge new work from the international art community and reflects an increasing interest in identity worldwide. Organised thematically, the book examines seven key strands of portraiture: The Body; The Self-Portrait; The Invented Portrait; The Anonymous Portrait; Social Identity; The Celebrity Portrait. With an essay by Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, that locates contemporary portraiture within a historic tradition, 21st Century Portraits examines current trends, showcasing the wide range of media today's artists are using. This book includes an extensive bibliography and is an essential reference work in the field of twenty-first-century portraiture. It will present many images to academic, curatorial and general audiences, including museum and gallery visitors and general art book buyers in the trade for the first time.
Situating the Tudor dynasty, their court, and the country, in an international context, this book will be highly illustrated and feature contemporary research in an accessible way. It will provide an overview of the ways in which the Tudors engaged with the world and were impacted by broader currents: the internationalism of court culture, religious shifts, trade, naval conflict and the expansion in the Americas. The introductory text will consider the legacies of the Tudors, as the monarchs who reigned during the tumultuous years of the Reformation and the emergence of the transatlantic slave trade and English colonialism. Taking a thematic and biographical approach, the book will feature some of the most famous royal and court figures from the sixteenth century, from Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, to Elizabeth I and Walter Ralegh. The works shown will be explored from a multitude of perspectives, looking at the sitters' impact at home and abroad in Europe and the Americas. The international impact of the Tudors will be very evident the portraits featured, the artists of which came from Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy. Artworks will be arranged by the key themes of: court culture, religion, queenship, conflict, empire, piracy and trade, and translation. Each theme will feature an opening text from a range of voices exploring the historical contexts of the works and new research on the topics. It will include biographical sketches of individuals whose role in Tudor history has often been overlooked, such as the trumpeter John Blanke.
"This revised and updated edition brings together a selection of more than 500 contemporary painted portraits from some of the world's leading artists in this genre, all of whom have been shortlisted for the annual BP Portrait Award in its first 25 years."--Back cover.
