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Three Royal Court Theatre Directors (Katie Mitchell; Stephen Daldry; Ian Rickson)

1 of 6 portraits of Stephen Daldry

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© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Three Royal Court Theatre Directors (Katie Mitchell; Stephen Daldry; Ian Rickson)

by Justin Mortimer
oil on canvas, 2004
70 in. x 80 in. (1780 mm x 2035 mm)
Commissioned with help from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation through the Jerwood Portrait Commission, 2004
Primary Collection
NPG 6668

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Drawing on diverse influences from Degas and Sickert to Richter and Tuymans, Mortimer used a photography session, in which he directed the three sitters in a Royal Court rehearsal room, as the starting point for this portrait. According to Mortimer 'the painting forces the figures to exist in a theatrical space with a hidden narrative'. The artist Neo Rausch has described the 'strange perfume' emanating from Mortimer's paintings and this can be seen here in the play between the artist's obvious delight in the painted surface and the painting's psychological depth and tension.

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  • Howgate, Sarah; Nairne, Sandy, A Guide to Contemporary Portraits, 2009, p. 38 Read entry

    This group portrait of Stephen Daldry (b. 1961), Katie Mitchell (b. 1964) and Ian Rickson (b. 1963) illustrates the interaction between a work’s painted surface and its psychological depth. By engulfing the interlocking figures in a dark imaginary space, Justin Mortimer captures all the tension of a piece of theatre.

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Current affairs

Armed robbers raid the Northern Bank in Belfast, stealing £26.5 million. Gunmen entered the homes of two bank officials, kidnapping their families and forcing them to let them into the bank, before loading cash into vans and driving away. Police and the British and Irish governments claimed that the Provisional IRA was responsible and several of the people arrested had PIRA, Real IRA and Sinn Féin connections.

Art and science

A fire at Charles Saatchi's art warehouse destroys some of the icons of Brit Art. Hell by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With and The Hut by Tracey Emin and works by Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Hume and Rachel Whiteread were among the casualties.

International

An earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day causes a tsunami that kills nearly 230,000 people when it hit the coasts of Southeast Asia. The earthquake itself was the second most powerful ever recorded on a seismograph and waves from the tsunami - the most devastating in history - were up to 30 metres high.

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