National Portrait Gallery

Jenny Saville and Edvard Munch headline 2025 programme at London's National Portrait Gallery

The gallery will also bring Cecil Beaton’s fashion photography and cult magazine The Face to the fore

'Emotion is so important in his work': National Portrait Gallery charts a personal path through the career of Francis Bacon

With its first-ever Bacon show, the gallery plans to make 'a real splash with a major British artist'

Former Frieze fair chief Victoria Siddall appointed director of London's National Portrait Gallery

Siddall will take up the role this autumn, becoming the first-ever woman to hold the position

Earliest known photograph of a US First Lady acquired by National Portrait Gallery in Washington

The museum recently purchased the 1840s daguerreotype of Dolley Madison at auction

Book Clubfeature

Katherine Parr: power, patronage and the first full-length portrait of an English queen

In this exclusive extract from a new book about Henry VIII’s six wives, the art historian Suzannah Lipscomb writes about “perhaps the greatest artistic patron of them all”

Poetic pose: Lord Byron the image-conscious Romantic in five portraits

The face of the scandal-ridden, best-selling celebrity poet—who died 200 years ago, and had a great influence on 19th-century artists and composers—was better known in his era than that of anyone save Napoloen Bonaparte

Nicholas Cullinan is appointed director of the British Museum

Cullinan, currently the director of the National Portrait Gallery, faces an array of challenges in rebuilding the oldest national museum in the world’s reputation

Radical reboot of Black presence in art explored in three London shows

The white, Western canon is being reassessed at the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy and the Dulwich Picture Gallery

Francesca Woodman’s posthumous path to A-lister

Exhibitions at Gagosian in New York and National Portrait Gallery in London confirm late photographer’s arrival

Ekow Eshun on the power of Black figuration and his new London show

Plus, 100 years of the Surrealist manifesto and Tonita Peña’s Eagle Dance

More than a moment: major survey of Black figuration opens at National Portrait Gallery London

Curator Ekow Eshun has brought together portraits from 22 leading artists, including Kerry James Marshall and Claudette Johnson

Tipping point: how new immersive institutions are changing the art world

Digital art venues are a global phenomenon, attracting massive audiences with radical new forms of immersive experiences. Are they a threat or an opportunity for traditional galleries and museums?

Awardsnews

UK New Year Honours—Venice Biennale artist Sonia Boyce made a dame; stained glass supremo Brian Clarke is knighted

NPG chief Nicholas Cullinan, Southbank’s Elaine Bedell and Nick Merriman of Horniman Museum all receive OBEs

US National Portrait Gallery unveils painting of Oprah Winfrey

The portrait, showing the influential media personality in a striking purple dress, was painted by Chicago artist Shawn Michael Warren

Former US First Lady Rosalynn Carter's portrait goes on view at National Portrait Gallery

The pastel double-portrait of President Jimmy Carter's recently deceased wife was drawn by Robert Clark Templeton

Law firm sponsor for National Portrait Gallery prize sparks controversy

Herbert Smith Freehills, which runs an "oil and gas" division, replaces BP

Prizesnews

Nicholas Cullinan wins Critics' Circle Visual Arts Award

The director of London's National Portrait Gallery receives what organisers hope will soon be seen as an “Oscar” of the art world

Joshua Reynolds’s 'Portrait of Mai' could visit its Polynesian homeland

The painting of the striking Polynesian man, recently bought jointly by London's National Portrait Gallery and the J. Paul Getty Museum, may travel to the South Pacific to be shown in Tahiti

Diaryblog

When Harry met Hockney—pop idol is painted by the Bradford-born artist

The new portrait will go on show in a Covid-delayed exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London

As London's National Portrait Gallery reopens, we must rethink dusty prejudices

Reviews of the revamped institution insist on calling its former building 'dusty', but that label should really be applied to the website, which is badly in need of an update

Female forward: National Portrait Gallery announces women-led partnership with Magnum Photos

Seven portraits of British women by female Magnum photographers will enter the permanent collection of London's newly reopened gallery as it attempts to balance a historic gender disparity

London's National Portrait Gallery's revamp: the review

Plus, William Edmondson in Philadelphia and Zinzi Minott's Windrush 75 film in London

Ben Luke. With guest speakers Alison Cole and Martin Bailey. Produced by David Clack, Aimee Dawson and Julia Michalska
Sponsored byChristie's

Windrush 75th anniversary marked by series of royal art commissions including portraits by Sonia Boyce and Amy Sherald

Also commemorating the arrival of the vessel from the Caribbean is a new exhibition at London's V&A and a display in London's Piccadilly Circus

Gender balance redressed as Tracey Emin creates new 'every woman' front doors for the National Portrait Gallery

The 45 portraits, cast in bronze, have been installed on the entrance to the newly restored London museum

A director's tour of the newly renovated National Portrait Gallery in London

Nicholas Cullinan shows us around the new-look museum after its three-year closure

Stormzy, Doreen Lawrence and Lucy Bronze: National Portrait Gallery reopens with a focus on the new faces of Britain

After a three-year closure and £41m redevelopment, the London institution aims to better acknowledge the UK’s history and diverse population

National Portrait Gallery should become a dispersed museum

The gallery—and the other big London museums—should be sending their vast collections around the country instead of hiding them in basements

Simon Jenkins
Exhibitionsinterview

Jann Haworth, Pop Art pioneer, discovers a 'soft and warm' sensibility in response to changes brought by the global pandemic

The American artist re-examines the myth of the Wild West in her new painted textile works—and shows a fabric figure from her co-creation of the legendary "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover