Icons and Idols: Commissioning Contemporary Portraits
Germaine Greer
by Dame Paula Rego
1995
NPG 6351
Past exhibition archive
2 March - 18 June 2006
Porter Gallery
Admission Free
Exhibition supported by the Patrons of the National Portrait Gallery
On Tour| Commissioning portraits
From Prince Charles to David Beckham, Icons and Idols: Commissioning Contemporary Portraits explores the activities of the National Portrait Gallery over the past 25 years in commissioning portraits of celebrated individuals for the collection.
The Gallery began commissioning on a regular basis in 1980 and over the succeeding quarter-century has added some 130 commissioned paintings, drawings, sculpture and mixed media works to the collection as well as many photographs. This is a unique record of patronage in the museum world, attracting great public interest and sometimes provoking keen debate. But it is a process not without its risks in marrying artist and sitter to produce an image of public credibility, which should be of enduring value to the Nation. How successful has the Gallery been in adding works to the collection and encouraging the art of portraiture?
This exhibition explores the creation of the portrait from the choice of subject and the selection of artist, through questions of how an image is formulated, exploring problems in making commissions work. It explores the reactions of those involved: sitter and artist, staff and Trustees, and of course the wider public.
Related portraits
- Sir Edward Heath (NPG P150(20))
- King Charles III (NPG 5365)
- Margaret Thatcher (NPG 5728)
- Philip Larkin (NPG 5746)
- Iris Murdoch (NPG 5921)
- Stephen Hawking (NPG 5799)
- Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (NPG 5820)
- Daley Thompson (NPG P323)
- Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich (NPG 5892)
- Diana, Princess of Wales (NPG P397)
- Sir Richard Rogers (NPG 6021)
- Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (NPG 6042)
- Sir Alan Ayckbourn (NPG 6074)
- John Mortimer (NPG 6160)
- Sir Roy Calne; John Bellany (NPG 6193)
- Alan Bennett (NPG 6186)
- Noel Gilroy Annan, Baron Annan (NPG 6220)
- Women's Page Contributors to The Guardian (NPG 6247)
- Germaine Greer (NPG 6351)
- Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (NPG 6332)
- A.S. Byatt (Portrait of A S Byatt : Red, Yellow, Green and Blue : 24 September 1997) (NPG 6414)
- Madhur Jaffrey (NPG P718(14))
- Stuart McPhail Hall (NPG P730)
- Paul Smith (NPG 6441)
- Antonio Carluccio (NPG P718(4))
- Sir Richard Branson (NPG 6494)
- Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (NPG 6530)
- Dame Jacqueline Wilson (NPG P949(6))
- Mo Mowlam (NPG 6468)
- Sir John Edward Sulston (NPG 6591)
- Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (NPG 6619)
- Sir George William Langham Christie; (Patricia) Mary (née Nicholson), Lady Christie (NPG 6624)
- David Beckham ('David') (NPG 6661)
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee (NPG P1103)
- Alistair Cooke (NPG x15102)
- Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd Webber (NPG x76670)
- Kingsley Amis; Martin Amis (NPG D198)
Related sitters
- Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès
- Sir Kingsley William Amis
- Martin Louis Amis
- Noel Gilroy Annan, Baron Annan
- Sir Alan Ayckbourn
- David Robert Joseph Beckham
- John Bellany
- Alan Bennett
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee
- Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson
- Dame Antonia Susan ('A.S.') Byatt
- Sir Roy Yorke Calne
- Antonio Carluccio
- Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson
- King Charles III
- Sir George William Langham Christie
- (Patricia) Mary (née Nicholson), Lady Christie
- Alistair Cooke
- Diana, Princess of Wales
- Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
- Dame Elizabeth Anne Lucy Forgan
- Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank
- Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich
- Germaine Greer
- Stuart McPhail Hall
- Stephen William Hawking
- Sir Edward Heath
- Sir Kazuo Ishiguro
- Madhur Jaffrey
- Philip Arthur Larkin
- Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd Webber
- Sir John Clifford Mortimer
- Marjorie ('Mo') Mowlam
- Dame (Jean) Iris Murdoch
- Sir Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside
- Posy Simmonds
- Sir Paul Brierley Smith
- Mary Stott
- Sir John Edward Sulston
- Margaret Hilda Thatcher (née Roberts), Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven
- Daley Thompson
- Polly Toynbee
- Jill Sheila Tweedie
- Dame Jacqueline Wilson (née Aitken)
Related artists
- David Bailey
- John Bellany
- Dawoud Bey
- Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
- David Buckland
- Roger George Clark
- John Davies
- Peter Edwards
- Michael Frith
- Peter Greenham
- Philip ('Phil') Oliver Hale
- Patrick Heron
- David Hockney
- John Keane
- R.B. Kitaj
- James Lloyd
- David Stefan Mach
- Barry Marsden
- Rodrigo Moynihan
- Arnold Newman
- Humphrey Ocean (Humphrey Anthony Erdeswick Butler-Bowdon)
- Bryan Organ
- Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi
- Tom Phillips
- Marc Quinn
- Allan Ramsay
- Sarah Raphael
- Dame Paula Rego
- Tai-Shan Schierenberg
- Yolanda Sonnabend
- Maud Sulter
- John Swannell
- Sam Taylor-Johnson (Sam Taylor-Wood)
- Alison Watt
- Glynn Anthony Williams
- Tom Wood