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Portrait of David Bowie as the Elephant Man will go on show

23 September 2013 by Gramilano Leave a Comment

David Bowie as the Elephant Man by Derek Boshier, 1980A selection of portraits by Pop Artist Derek Boshier will be shown in the UK for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery.

Derek Boshier: Imaginary Portraits (28 September 2013 – May 2014) will feature 10 works from the artist's ‘imaginary portraits' series, including his oil-on-canvas portrait of David Bowie, which was painted in New York in 1980 while Bowie was rehearsing for his role in Bernard Pomerance's play The Elephant Man. It was Bowie's first major theatre role and he received huge critical acclaim for his performance. He talked about the role with Boshier at the artist's studio, resulting in the striking portrait of Bowie in character.

Boshier (b.1937) was closely associated with the development of Pop Art in Britain in the early 1960s. With David Hockney, Allen Jones, Patrick Caulfield, R.B. Kitaj and Peter Phillips, he was included in the 1961 Young Contemporaries exhibition held at the RBA Galleries, London, that marked the appearance of the new art movement. From the outset, Boshier's art combined social commentary with a rich imaginative element, with portraiture being an important theme throughout. He works in various media, including painting, drawing, sculpture and film.

Imaginary Portraits showcases an aspect of the artist's work that involves depictions of invented people or representations of real individuals that incorporate fantasy. Early works on display include two portraits of Bowie and one of the painter Malcolm Morley, which were based on observation from life but then developed imaginatively. Later works include a series of drawings in which the artist depicts himself in a variety of different roles and contexts. The most recent work on show in the display is Black Dog (2009): a large painting which depicts a fragmented figure and represents, according to Boshier, ‘a symbol of self-identification.'

Curator Paul Moorhouse, says

Derek Boshier is celebrated as one of the founders of Pop Art in the early 1960s. But his distinctive contribution to portraiture, combining observation and fantasy, is less well known. This display explores the role of imagination in making portraits, and it illuminates Boshier's innovatory approach to a traditional genre.

 

 

DEREK BOSHIER: IMAGINARY PORTRAITS
Room 32 from 28 September 2013, National Portrait Gallery, London 

Admission free

 

David Bowie as the Elephant Man by Derek Boshier, 1980 © Derek Boshier c/o Flowers Gallery

Graham Spicer version
Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.

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Filed Under: art Tagged With: David Hockney, National Portrait Gallery

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Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan, aka ‘Gramilano’. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times. He wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.

Since 2022, Gramilano is pleased to welcome guest authors: Alisa Alekseeva, Paul Arrowsmith, Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel, Jonathan Gray, Marina Harss, Matthew Paluch, Jann Parry, Graham Watts, and Deborah Weiss.

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