At the National Portrait Gallery, a Collection that is Unique in All the World
Местоположение: National Portrait Gallery
Адрес: St. Martin's Pl, Charing Cross, London WC2H 0HE
In the light of a lantern, a young woman traces the profile of her lover on the wall, just before he is about to leave. His father, a potter in Corinth, works these lines into his clay. According to an ancient and fortunate legend, this is the origin of art itself. For thousands of years, before the invention of photography, the painted, sculpted and drawn portrait represented the only means for making distant or deceased people, somehow, become present. Over time, it acquired new functions, highlighting power and prestige, taste and virtue, beauty and emotion. In London, a museum celebrates the art of the portrait with an incredible collection that spans centuries. The National Portrait Gallery is a treasure trove that cannot be matched anywhere else in the world, with eleven-thousand paintings, drawings, sculptures and miniatures, as well as a section dedicated to photography that gathers together over 250.000 images. It is possible to admire masterpieces from Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarts and Andy Warhol, iconic portraits of characters such as Shakespeare and Queen Victoria, photos by masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson or Helmuth Newton, right up to contemporary artist David LaChapelle - a truly remarkable repertoire of faces and characters that tell the very story of Western Civilisation.
Darren Almond uses sculpture, film and photography to produce works that harness the symbolic and emotional potential of objects, places and situations, producing works that have universal and personal resonances. Today he works on the "sense of time".
The Biba Story explores the brand phenomenon invented by Barbara Hulanicki, grew to become the world's first lifestyle brand embodying the fashion of the 1960s and 1970s.
The history of photography according to Elton John
This exhibition covers the period from the 1950s to the present day and bring together an unrivalled selection of the world’s leading photographers including works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, William Eggleston, Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, and others.
An exhibition to talk about Sergio Strizzi, one of the most famous film photographers in the world. In his long career he documented the back stages of the most important Italian and international films working alongside Antonioni, De Sica, John Huston and Peter Greenaway.