BP Portrait Awards 2011

Whilst at the National Portrait Gallery a few weeks ago, I bought a small book showing the prizewinners and fifty other entries in the 2011 BP National Portrait Exhibition. This was very good value at only £8.99 and I envisaged that this could provide some ideas on portraits, poses and expression. Anyway, I liked some of the pictures in it.

My impressions of these portraits are noted below.

• I was astonished that so many of the painted portraits have adopted a "photo-realism" style. Relatively few seemed to have chosen to use a "painterly" style. One of many examples of what I have labelled "photo-realism" is the portrait of Jade by David J Eichenberg. It is not just the detail of the representation, but also the monochrome background and fleeting glance of figures in the background that are particularly reminiscent of styles current in photography. One of portraits,, "Daniel" by Mark Bush is an acrylic painting that mimics the use of black and white photography. On the other hand, I thought that "Sergio" by Annalisa Avancini and "Abi" by Nathan Ford are examples of the looser and more timeless style of painted portraits.
• The artists also seemed to make use of what in photography is labelled wide angle perspective, for example "David Carter" by Richard Brazier and "Head 16" by Shona Chew.
• In most cases, the paintings were relatively large, although there were a few in the same range as is customary for photography - e.g. "10x8", "14x10".
• Comparing the paintings selected for this exhibition, with the photographic portraits displayed at the Taylor Wessing Prize exhibition, I felt that many of the painted portraits were more interesting visually.
• I was puzzled by the choice of "Distracted" by Wim Heiders as the overall winner. Whilst this seems an attractive portrait, I could not identify a particular quality that made this painting stand out above the others. Possibly, the reproduction in the booklet does not do it justice.