Artists and sitters
R.B. Kitaj ('Self-Portrait: Hockney Pillow')
by R.B. Kitaj
1993-1994
NPG 6791
From 21 April 2007
Balcony Gallery
Free admission
As a variation in its traditional policy of giving primacy to the sitter, the National Portrait Gallery will be focusing on the artist in its dramatic re-hang of the late 20th century Collection. Covering the period from 1960-1990, the new hang will take a fresh look at the period by grouping portraits by artist, allowing visitors a clearer sense of particular styles while also showing the great variety of approaches to portraiture of the late 20th Century.
The new display will include British sculptor, Anthony Caro's bust of Lord Goodman, on show to the public for the first time, and the Gallery's latest acquisition, an outstanding self-portrait by the American Pop artist, R.B. Kitaj.
To demonstrate the varying approaches in sculpture of the period, works by masters such as Frink, Moore and Paolozzi will go on show. Likewise, showing differing approaches to the royal portrait, Bryan Organ's separate portraits of Prince Charles and Princess Diana will be shown in sharp juxtaposition to Warhol's Pop portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Illustrating the development of our leading artists over the course of the creative careers - among them Graham Sutherland, Ruskin Spear and Roger de Grey - the new display also paints a compelling portrait of Britain in the course of great change, from the optimism of the 1960s through the tensions and disillusionments of the 1970s and 1980s.
During the period 1960-1990, shifts in values and politics were matched by changing artistic movements. Pop art, Op art, Conceptual art, and the revival of interest in figurative painting in the 1980s created a dizzying profusion of styles. A real sense of these cultural and artistic changes can be gleaned from the selected portraits.
Related portraits
- Henry Moore (NPG 4687)
- Kenneth Clark, Baron Clark (NPG 5243)
- Paul McCartney ('Mike's Brother') (NPG 6172)
- Maxwell Fry (NPG 5969)
- Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (NPG 5970)
- Cecil Harmsworth King (NPG 6613)
- Pandit Ram Gopal (NPG 6812)
- Sir Edward Heath (NPG 6914)
- Harold Wilson (NPG 5047)
- Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (NPG 5775)
- Sir John Pope-Hennessy (NPG 5406)
- Maggi Hambling (NPG 6562)
- Graham Sutherland (NPG 5338)
- Sir Lawrence Gowing (NPG 5266)
- The Meeting, Royal Academy of Arts (NPG 5740)
- King Charles III (NPG 5365)
- Diana, Princess of Wales (NPG 5408)
- Leon Kossoff (NPG 5772)
- Max Wall ('Max with Onde') (NPG 5578)
- Elisabeth Frink (NPG 5779)
- Dame Peggy Ashcroft (NPG 5712)
- Francis Bacon (NPG 5818)
- Iris Murdoch (NPG 5921)
- Sir Alec Guinness (NPG 5721)
- Ian Botham (NPG 5835)
- Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (NPG 5952)
- Lew Grade, Baron Grade (NPG 6062)
- Sir Richard Rogers (NPG 6021)
- Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild ('Man in a Chair') (NPG L201)
- R.B. Kitaj ('Self-Portrait: Hockney Pillow') (NPG 6791)
- Queen Elizabeth II (NPG 5882(1))
- Queen Elizabeth II (NPG 5882(2))
- Queen Elizabeth II (NPG 5882(3))
- Queen Elizabeth II (NPG 5882(4))
Related sitters
- Dame Edith Margaret Emily ('Peggy') Ashcroft
- (Robert) Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon
- Francis Bacon
- Sir Ian Botham
- Robert Buhler
- James Walter Butler
- Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson
- King Charles III
- Kenneth Clark, Baron Clark
- (James) Trevor Dannatt
- Sir Roger de Grey
- Diana, Princess of Wales
- Bernard Dunstan
- Queen Elizabeth II
- Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink
- (Edwin) Maxwell Fry
- Arnold Abraham Goodman, Baron Goodman
- Pandit Ram Gopal
- Sir Lawrence Gowing
- Lew Grade, Baron Grade
- Peter Greenham
- Sir Alec Guinness
- Maggi Hambling
- Griselda Hamilton-Baillie
- Sydney Charles Harpley
- Maureen Harris
- Colin Graham Hayes
- Sir Edward Heath
- Norman Hepple
- Sidney Hutchison
- Cecil Harmsworth King
- R.B. Kitaj
- Leon Kossoff
- Sir (James) Paul McCartney
- Henry Moore
- Dame (Jean) Iris Murdoch
- Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi
- Constance-Anne Parker
- Sir John Pope-Hennessy
- Sir Philip Powell
- Piers Rodgers
- Sir Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside
- Leonard Rosoman
- Michael Rothenstein
- Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild
- Sir Richard Sheppard
- Graham Vivian Sutherland
- Sir Michael Kemp Tippett
- Max Wall (Maxwell George Lorimer)
- (James) Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx
Related artists
- John Bellany
- Sir Anthony Alfred Caro
- Robert Clatworthy
- Lucian Freud
- Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink
- Maggi Hambling
- Gertrude Hermes
- (Arthur) Derek Hill
- R.B. Kitaj
- Leon Kossoff
- Marino Marini
- Rodrigo Moynihan
- Bryan Organ
- Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi
- Tom Phillips
- Leonard Rosoman
- Ruskin Spear
- Graham Vivian Sutherland
- Feliks Topolski
- Sam Walsh
- Andy Warhol