Contemporary art
Wearing's "grim and worthy" NPG portrait of Chakrabarti
By The Art Newspaper. From In The Frame
Published online: 30 January 2012
Shami Chakrabarti
The National Portrait Gallery in London has commissioned Gillian Wearing to take a photograph of human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti (right), director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties). What may come as a surprise is the £30,000 fee, which seems rather high to charge a public collection. But it was not simply a matter of snapping a picture. Chakrabarti first sat in September 2010, when she was digitally scanned to make a wax face mask. This mask was then sculpted and coloured, with glass eyes added. Last April Chakrabarti returned to Wearing’s studio, to be photographed holding the mask from a ribbon. The black-and-white image was inspired by Chakrabarti’s comment about her public persona being mask-like, and regarded as “grim and worthy”. The eyebrow-raising portrait is due to go on display in April.
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