Derek Jarman

Photograph © National Portrait Gallery, London

Derek Jarman

by Ian Rank-Broadley
bronze medallion, 1991
5 5/8 in. (142 mm) diameter
Purchased, 1991
Primary Collection
NPG 6147

Sitterback to top

(Michael) Derek Elworthy Jarman (1942-1994), Film-maker, painter, stage designer, gardener and campaigner for gay rights. Sitter in 16 portraits.

Artistback to top

Ian Rank-Broadley (1952-), Medallist. Artist associated with 2 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Rank-Broadley recalls that Jarman, 'liked the idea of being portrayed on a medal in a tradition going back to Pisanello'. The allegorical reverse of the medal refers to the religious iconography that features in Jarman's film The Garden (1990).

Linked publicationsback to top

Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 334

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1991back to top

Current affairs

Publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell dies after falling from his yacht in the Canary Islands. Although the verdict was 'accidental death', suspicions of suicide or murder were raised because of his alleged connections to Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, and the revelation that he had used hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies' pension funds to finance his corporate debt and lavish lifestyle.

Art and science

Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the rock group Queen, dies of Aids.
Marc Quinn brings a new meaning to the term 'Self-Portrait' with his work Self, a cast of the artists' head made out of his own blood.

International

Members of the USSR sign the Alma-Ata Protocol, disbanding the Union in favour of a Commonwealth of Independent States, thereby granting independence to the various republics.
The Revolutionary United Front begins a civil war against the government of Sierra Leone in West Africa. Tens of thousands die in eleven years of violence.
Civil War breaks out in the former Yugoslavia as Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence.

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