BP Portrait Award 2016

Lovely exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of the shortlisted entries in these years BP Portrait Award.

I always enjoy this show but this year’s felt a bit thin. It was nicely arranged but there seemed to be less pictures in it. However like last year most of the work was quite realistic and there wasn’t too much abstract work.

My vote for most unusual picture has to be David Von Bassewitz’a “Falk” a long double ended picture with the sitter at the top and I assume a self-portrait of the artist upside down at the bottom. I desperately wanted to know if it still worked as a picture if you span it the other way up!

I don’t usually like portraits of children but who could not like “Tad” by John Borowicz which showed a naked toddler with a paper bag on his head. The picture had caught a moment beautifully. I also liked the picture of Sir Andrew Motion by Fiona Graham-Mackay, painted for a Radio 4 series that eavesdropped on conversations between sitters and artists. 

My favourite picture at the time was a self-portrait by Mark Shield entitled “A ridiculous man” which seemed to have a 3D effect from the side and caught you attention across the room. However I bought a postcard for a friend of Jean by John-Paul Tibbles which then sat on the dining table where we were staying. The picture in the show was huge but somehow it seemed to work much better as a small intense work. We became very fond of Jean by the end of the holidays so I've used his image on this story.

Closes on 4 September 2016.

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