First Previous 2 OF 5 NextLast

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro

2 of 5 portraits of Sir Kazuo Ishiguro

© The Douglas Brothers

 Like voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

Please Like other favourites!
If they inspire you please support our work.

Make a donation Close

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro

by The Douglas Brothers
lith print, November 1989
8 7/8 in. x 7 in. (227 mm x 177 mm) image size
Given by The Douglas Brothers, 2015
Primary Collection
NPG P2009

On display in Room 28 on Floor 2 at the National Portrait Gallery

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

This portraitback to top

The Japanese-born writer Kazuo Ishiguro was photographed in the year his third novel, The Remains of the Day, was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction. The novel journeys into the imprecise and unreliable memories of its protagonist, the butler Mr. Stevens. The Douglas Brothers’ ghost-like portrait imitates this structure, as Ishiguro’s features simultaneously emerge from and evaporate into the darkness that surrounds him. As the Brothers explained, they used shadowy interiors ‘to isolate the sitter, to cut out all background interference. We used darkness to illuminate our subjects’.

Linked publicationsback to top

Placesback to top

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1989back to top

Current affairs

96 people are crushed to death at the Hillsborough football stadium in Sheffield. The accident took place when Liverpool fans were all let into the stadium at once. Incoming crowds crushed people against a fence used to prevent pitch-invasions. Following the Taylor Report into the incident standing terraces and fences between fans and pitch were banned.

Art and science

Following the publication of Anglo-Indian writer Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses in 1988, the leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, announces that the book is 'blasphemous against Islam' and places a fatwah (death sentence) on Rushdie, who is forced into hiding for several years.

International

The Berlin Wall is dismantled, reunifying East and West Germany and symbolising the end of the Cold War. Following a decision to allow East Berliners to cross the border with valid visas, crowds swarmed the border crossings. Guards soon gave up trying to stop them, and the physical dismantlement of the wall soon began.
Approximately 2,000 Chinese demonstrators are massacred in Tiananmen Square while protesting against the government.

Comments back to top

We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.

If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.