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 […]
National Portrait Gallery
“Cross-dressing” Grayson Perry to design front cloth for English National Ballet’s female choreographers
English National Ballet has announced that it has commissioned Grayson Perry to design the front cloth for its She Said programme, at Sadler’s Wells from Wednesday 13 – Saturday 16 April 2016. Perry – introduced on Wikipedia as “an English artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing” – has ENB’s Artistic Director as a fan of his […]
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 […]
Audrey Hepburn glad to be home in a major new exhibition
Thirty-five photographs of Audrey Hepburn from the personal collection of her sons, Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Luca Dotti, will go on display in London’s National Portrait Gallery’s summer exhibition. Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon will explore the life and career of the film star, and is the first British exhibition to be organised with support 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 […]
Audrey Hepburn to be celebrated in photos in London
65 years ago, Audrey Hepburn was a struggling actress and dancer in London, working occasionally in the renowned West End night club Ciro’s. That space is now home to the National Portrait Gallery’s Heinz Archive and Library, and now to celebrate the iconic figure the gallery is to stage an exhibition which will bring together a remarkable selection […]
Virginia Woolf: Major London exhibition opens 10 July
A major exhibition exploring the life and achievements of Virginia Woolf opens at the National Portrait Gallery tomorrow, 10 July 2014. Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision, which is on display until 26 October, will feature painted portraits, photographs, drawings and rare archival material. The exhibition looks at Woolf as a novelist, intellectual, campaigner and […]
Choral pieces inspired by wartime diaries at National Portrait Gallery
The world première of four pieces of choral music inspired by the National Portrait Gallery’s wartime diaries, letters and memos will be performed by the Gallery’s choir in residence, The Portrait Choir, on Friday 13 June, with two further performances on Saturday 14 June 2014. As part of the National Portrait Gallery’s programme commemorating the […]
English National Ballet dance in front of massive WW1 paintings
English National Ballet will present a First World War themed world première at the National Portrait Gallery this Friday 16 May for one night only as part of Museums at Night and the Gallery’s Late Shift programme. The site-specific dance performance is inspired by David Jones’s seminal First World War poem In Parenthesis and is […]
