There is one event in the nation's artistic calendar that I look forward to immensely. No, it is not the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The BP Portrait Award 2014 is now in its 35th year. I have attended each one since 1998, albeit, truly professing my avid fascination with portraiture for the last nine. It wasn't that I felt less drawn to the face or the body before 2005. I had wandered along the ground floor galleries housing these summer exhibitions on multiple visits to the National Portrait Gallery just off the corner from its illustrious big brother, the National Gallery. But, something happened in 2005 that the reader need not fuss over, which made me focus on depiction of the human face.
This year's exhibition follows the pattern of past years in what really gets chosen. I have always felt that it would be really interesting to see all of the nearly 2000 paintings submitted for each year's award. Perhaps, that would take forever. What is noticeable each year are the multiple portraits that have a slight perspectival brevity, in photographic terms, a portrait taken with an extreme wide angle lens making the subject look wider or longer. The scope, size and the dramatic potential of paintings are on a different Richter scale compared to its younger brother, the photographic portrait. There are always a few paintings of pretty young men and women, and the trend of last few years had been to add the innocence of a young child. Then there are the character fuelled images of middle age or older men and women. The compositions of parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts or lovers in their most honest and serious gaze depict the seriousness of the artist. Lastly, there are a few recognisable faces.
In 2014 this last group comprise of the actor Tim Spall, who has recently played the part of the artist J M W Turner in his latest biopic and the wonderfully brawn Northumbrian poet Simon Armitage. Perhaps there is northern theme going on here? I really liked both of these. The swirly broad brush in red and yellow that is Simon Armitage reminded me of his recent television series charting the tales of the epic poem Odessesy. Armitage's northern sprawled vowelled were almost imitated by the paint brush and the sensuous energy of the colours painted his lyricism. The Tim Spall painting is altogether brilliant the more I think about it. Spall looking askance, out of the painting, I found a fascinating viewing position when looking from quite a distance to the right. There is a sense of everyday reverence to this painting. The actor playing the part of the most famous British painter is in his element here out of the artist's garb.
One of my notable other favourites was a painting of a Welsh party girl in her black cocktail dress sat on chair with a grey dog with the most interesting eyes. If I had used sensuous as an adjective earlier to refer to the Armitage painting, here is it a verb. This is a really mundane scene other than the curiously pretty dog eyes. The more I looked at the painting as a whole - I went back to it three times - I felt strangely drawn to its owner. There is almost a mundane lasciviousness to the depiction, a colloquial 'hotness' to her, the sight of porcelain flesh that made this a subtle and semi erotic viewer's gaze. Forgive me reader, I had felt tempted.
The winner, Thomas Ganter's 'Man with a Plaid Blanket' is one of the most beautiful portraits to have ever represented the first prize. The protagonist, a homeless man exudes a noble charm that belies his status and circumstance. Dignity is so often associated with such subjects but this delves further into the mind of viewer in emulating references to grand paintings of saints and noblemen from the past.
If you are around the Trafalgar Square over the next two months, I would recommend a visit to this exhibition. Quiet, dignified yet brimming with passion, this is a very good year for portraits. I can't wait for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Exhibition later this year.
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