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20th Century posts

Ramsay MacDonald by Sir Jacob Epstein, 1934, NPG 2934

Shocking sculptures?

It’s hard to believe it now, but for the first decades of his career, Jacob Epstein was the sculptor some people loved to hate. The genitals of the angel that he carved on the tomb of Oscar Wilde caused such a row that the sculpture was covered up with a tarpaulin while the naked woman in Rima, his memorial to W. H. Hudson, was attacked with green paint. As the sculptor Henry Moore said at Epstein’s funeral, Epstein ‘took the brickbats for modern art’. Epstein’s portrait busts didn’t provoke the same levels of outrage but I was surprised to learn that they were viewed with suspicion by many early critics. What was it about these lively sculptures that led one critic to compare them to a ‘mud-pie’? …

By Clare Barlow, Assistant Curator

8 May 2013

Coco Chanel, 1935 by Man Ray Museum Ludwig Cologne, Photography Collections (Collection Gruber) © Man Ray Trust / ADAGP © Copy Photograph Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

Man Ray Portraits: the art of dressing for the camera

I’m leading a tour of the Man Ray Portraits exhibition on 16 May themed around all things sartorial. Of course, Man Ray is the creator of iconic portraits of two of the best known designers of the twentieth century: Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, both of which feature in the exhibition. And Man Ray worked within the industry himself for a number of years, contributing his innovative Surrealist fashion photographs to magazines including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and the lesser known Charm, as Curator Terence Pepper discusses in the exhibition catalogue. More fundamentally however, details of dress are revealed throughout the exhibition to be instrumental in creating the arresting style of photographic portraiture that Man Ray is celebrated for.…

By Inga Fraser, Assistant Curator (Contemporary & 20th Century Collections)

20 March 2013

Front cover of Vu, Issue No. 144 (17 December 1930) Private Collection

Man Ray Portraits in print – continuing research and dialogue

One of the many challenges in assembling a major exhibition on such a well-known photographer and artist as Man Ray was how best to share new research and balance the introduction of great, but lesser known works, together with great prints of his most iconic works. Similarly his published work in magazines of the 1920s and 1930s such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar has been examined but I was fascinated to find that no survey to date had looked at in depth as his work published in the great French news weekly VU magazine. What was most exciting was that copies of Vu were still available for purchase in specialised book shops in Paris or through French ebay. Some of these have found their way into the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition showcases and the accompanying catalogue.…

By Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs

14 February 2013

T.S. Eliot: Cubist Version by Patrick Heron, 194–8 © The estate of Patrick Heron. All Rights Reserved, DACS, 2013

Installing a new display: Patrick Heron’s portraits of TS Eliot

I am often asked, ‘what is the best part of being a curator?’ This question is difficult to answer because there are so many possible responses. Writing about art comes near the top, as does researching and acquiring new works for the collection. Working with living artists is also enormously exciting and invariably illuminating. However, at this minute I am tempted to say that displaying great works of art is still, after almost thirty years of curating, the biggest thrill. There is something about seeing a painting or a drawing finally taking its place within a long-planned exhibition that constantly surprises. In that moment, familiar images suddenly appear in a different light and become vital.…

By Paul Moorhouse, 20th Century Curator

6 February 2013

François Latry by Florence Enid Stoddard, circa 1937, given by Christine Hayes, D42428

New Acquisition: Forgotten master chefs

In the modern world of celebrity chefs, and, at this time of year in particular, when so many of them publish new books for the Christmas market, who remembers their predecessors? Recently, on BBC Four, Michel Roux Jr explored the life of his great culinary hero, Georges Auguste Escoffier; but what of those who followed Escoffier: Eugène Herbodeau at the Carlton, François Latry at the Savoy, Arsène Avignon at the Ritz?…

By Robin Francis, Head of Archive & Library

19 December 2012

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill by Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen 1916 NPG L250

What makes a great portrait?

I hesitate to use the word ‘great’ when discussing art. Like other over-used superlatives - ‘iconic’ is another I make a point of avoiding – the very familiarity of the term, and the ease with which it trips off the tongue, deny the significance intended. The idea of a ‘great’ painting or sculpture raises many questions. What makes a particular image or object so distinctive and compelling as to transcend the merely excellent? How is greatness judged? And why, I ask, did I find myself using the dreaded adjective when recently being interviewed on television about a portrait that has just gone on display in our 20th century galleries?…

By Paul Moorhouse, 20th Century Curator

14 November 2012

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