The annual BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. 2,377 paintings, a few sculptures and videos were entered, 55 were selected to go on show, including the prize winners, £30,000 for first prize, £10,000 second, £8,000 third. Most of the entries are oil paintings, with the notable exception of Marc Quinn’s sculpture of his own head made in blood, and a video of David Beckham sleeping. Sweet.
The standard struck me as low. A number of the portraits of famous people, where you could compare against life, were dire; many very average. I’d estimate between 10 and 20 were memorable or valid. The winners are:
- First Prize: Man with a Plaid Blanket by Thomas Ganter
- Second prize: Jean Woods by Richard Twose
- Third prize: Letter to my Mom by David Jon Kassan
I really liked the Simon Armitage portrait, and quite liked the others.:
- Simon Armitage by Paul Wright
- Engels by Patrick Graham
- Princess Julia in Meadham Kirchhoff by Ben Ashton
- Self in blood by Marc Quinn
- 31 years by Tanya Wischerath
It is striking how many of the paintings – which looked crude and amateurish and unfinished when seen in the flesh, 4 or 5 or 6 feet tall, hanging on a wall – look vastly better when reduced to one-inch-square photos in magazines or online.
Books & Boots 