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On dis­play at the National Por­trait Gal­lery, Lon­don, from 30 April until 15 Septem­ber 2013 is a free exhib­i­tion to mark the passing of half-a-century since the Pro­fumo Affair scandal.

The Brit­ish polit­ical scan­dal came to a head in 1963 and was named after John Pro­fumo, the then Sec­ret­ary of State for War. Pro­fumo (mar­ried to the act­ress Valerie Hob­son) had a brief affair with the nightclub host­ess and model Christine Keeler who was also romantic­ally involved with the senior Rus­sian naval attaché Yev­geny Ivanov. The infam­ous affair took place against the back­drop of the Cold War and heightened polit­ical para­noia. The dis­play fea­tures a rare vin­tage print of one of Lewis Morley’s iconic seated nude por­traits of Christine Keeler as well as Stephen Ward’s pas­tel of her, made at Cliveden. … [con­tinue reading]

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Tomor­row, an import­ant new exhib­i­tion opens devoted to one of the most innov­at­ive and influ­en­tial artists of his gen­er­a­tion: over 150 vin­tage prints from Man Ray’s career taken between 1916 and 1968 have been gathered together at the National Por­trait Gal­lery in London.

Drawn from private col­lec­tions and major museums includ­ing the Pomp­idou Centre, the J. Paul Getty Museum and New York’s The Museum of Mod­ern Art and Met­ro­pol­itan Museum of Art, and spe­cial loans from the Man Ray Trust Archive, the major­ity of the works have not pre­vi­ously been exhib­ited in the United Kingdom.

Por­traits of Man Ray’s cel­eb­rated con­tem­por­ar­ies are shown along­side his per­sonal and often intim­ate por­traits of friends, lov­ers and his social circle. His ver­sat­il­ity and exper­i­ment­a­tion as an artist is illus­trated through­out his phở­to­graphy although this was never his chosen prin­cipal artistic medium.… [con­tinue reading]

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