The Portrait Now - Softcover

Sandy Nairne; Sarah Howgate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1855143585 ISBN 13: 9781855143586

Publisher: National Portrait Gallery, 2006

Synopsis

"The Portrait Now" presents a unique and important selection of contemporary portraits from across the world. Featuring over eighty portraits, including the most recent work of internationally acclaimed artists, the book demonstrates the accomplishment and inventiveness of this major art form. "The Portrait Now" is an exciting overview of contemporary trends in portraiture, in the context of a changing outlook in the art world. The portraits have been chosen to show the latest developments in painting, sculpture, video art, photography and self-portraiture, and to highlight changes that are occurring in the artistic presentation of the human form. Together they illustrate how artists are responding to the human condition in increasingly inventive ways and in the context of a more complex world. The book features an essay by Sandy Nairne and Sarah Howgate in which they examine international portraiture, focusing on a selection of works from 2000 onwards. They discuss such subjects as the condition for portraits, celebrity, identity, the variety of media used, commissioning portraits, patronage, the return of the society portrait and the use of new technology. "The Portrait Now" will be an indispensable reference book for all those working in the field or interested in contemporary art. It is published to launch the Gallery's 150th anniversary year.

About this title

About the Author:

Sandy Nairne is Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, and was formerly Director of Programmes at the Tate. Sarah Howgate is Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

From Booklist:

Howgate and Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, team up in The Portrait Now, an informative and exciting international gathering of more than 80 portraits by contemporary artists. Diverse in media, style, and intent, the works include Alessandro Raho's realistic oil portrait of Dame Judi Dench and Eric Fischl's expressive double portrait of Joan Didion and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, as well as paintings by such signature portraitists as Alex Katz, Elizabeth Peyton, Francesco Clemente, and Chuck Close and photographs by Malick Sidib\'e9, Zhang Huan, and Pinar Yola\'e7an.

Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: National Portrait Gallery
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1855143585
• ISBN 13: 9781855143586
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160