A portrait slashed with a butcher’s cleaver by a suffragette in the National Portrait Gallery will go back on display there for the first time in over twenty years. A photograph showing the damage will be included for the first time in a complementary display devoted to the suffrage movement that inspired the attack in […]
Art
The tides of memory – identity, migration and the new diasporas in a film by Luisa Mariani inspired by William Kentridge
William Kentridge’s mural, Triumphs and Laments, in Rome became the city’s biggest contemporary art work and is also Kentridge’s largest public work. The 550m stretch of black and white images was unveiled on 21 April 2016. It was commissioned to mark the anniversary of Rome’s founding in 753BC. The mural’s inauguration was celebrated by a […]
Portrait of soprano Lina Cavalieri – the most beautiful woman in the world – is for sale
Lina Cavalieri – the soprano who sang with Caruso at the Met and inspired artists with her stunning looks – was known as ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’; Gina Lollobrigida even played her in a biopic of the same name. Piero Fornasetti’s obsession with the face of Cavalieri, his muse and ‘theme’, led to more […]
Amici della Scala: Fracci, Lazzarini, Pomodoro, Soleri, Vanoni, Savignano… artists who have made Milan great
The ‘Amici della Scala’ sure knows how to throw a party! The indefatigable Anna Crespi, who has been guiding the Friends of La Scala association since its birth in 1978, had the idea to get some of the most important Milanese artists invite their friends to celebrate the great sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro (90 next month) and […]
Franco Zeffirelli is named one of 35 living descendants of Leonardo da Vinci
35 living descendants of Leonardo Da Vinci’s family have been identified. Although Da Vinci didn’t have any children, a project – started in 1973 – sort to create his family tree starting from the children of his siblings. Art historians Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato, from the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci, have been putting […]
Lucian Freud Archive acquired for the nation
An important archive comprising Lucian Freud’s sketchbooks, drawings and letters has been acquired by the nation from the estate of Lucian Freud through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme. The archive has been permanently allocated to the National Portrait Gallery, which in 2012 staged the acclaimed Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition, the Gallery’s most visited ticketed exhibition. Sir […]
Giacometti: Pure Presence exhibition opens in London
The first ever exhibition solely to consist of portraits by the twentieth-century artist Alberto Giacometti opens at the National Portrait Gallery tomorrow, Thursday 15 October. Giacometti: Pure Presence (15 October 2015 – 10 January 2016) comprises over 60 works, including paintings, sculptures and drawings, spanning the entire range of the Swiss artist’s career. Including very rare […]
Painted sculpture of Sir Tim Berners-Lee unveiled at National Portrait Gallery
A newly commissioned portrait of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has been unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in London. A painted bronze sculpture, by artist Sean Henry, shows Berners-Lee standing at two-thirds life-size on a tall plinth, carrying the leather rucksack in which he keeps his laptop. Apart from […]
Exhibition of Giacometti’s portraits to open at the National Portrait Gallery this autumn
The first ever exhibition dedicated to Alberto Giacometti’s portraits is to open at the National Portrait Gallery this autumn. This was announced today just hours after a sculpture of the Swiss artist sold for millions of dollars at an auction in New York, making him the world’s most highly prized modern sculptor. Giacometti: Pure Presence […]
Milan Expo 2015 – The Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Palazzo Reale
The Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Palazzo Reale in Milan – opening last week to coincide with the beginning of the Milan Expo on 1 May – is not to be missed, even if the show misses some opportunities itself. Unfortunately pipped to the post by London’s Leonardo exhibition just three years ago, which actually […]
