Dozens of protesters blocked entry to the gallery for guests of the ceremony, linking arms and chaining themselves to the gallery gates. Guests were forced to climb over the wall with the assistance of security in order to enter the gallery.
National Portrait Gallery
Posted inNews
Artists Affiliated with Prestigious Portrait Prize Call on National Portrait Gallery to End BP Sponsorship
“There should be no role for an oil company in the artistic decisions of any cultural organization,” wrote the competition judge, artist Gary Hume, “and especially not in determining the winner of the world’s leading portrait award.”
Posted inIn Brief
Tate Will No Longer Accept Donations from the Sackler Family, Setting New Precedent
The major decision comes just days after London’s National Portrait Gallery decided to not accept a $1.3 million donation from the Sackler Trust.
Posted inOpinion
Artist Sues Smithsonian After It Declined to Display His 16-Foot Painting of Trump
Reportedly, the National Portrait Gallery’s director told Julian Raven the painting was “too political,” “too big,” and “no good.”
Posted inIn Brief
Nan Goldin Says She’ll Boycott National Portrait Gallery If It Accepts £1M Sackler Donation
Goldin says she was invited to host a retrospective of her work at the National Portrait Gallery but will refuse to participate if they accept the hefty donation from the Sackler family.
Posted inArt
Photographing the Women of British Art
Mayotte Magnus’s Illuminating Women features stage actors, novelists, artists, editors, and publishers whose breakthroughs coincided with the Feminist movement of the 1970s.
Posted inNews
Obama Portraits Double Annual Attendance at the National Portrait Gallery
As the museum approaches its 50th anniversary on October 7, the Smithsonian gallery announced it saw two million visitors this fiscal year.
Posted inArt
An Outline of Over 200 Years of Silhouettes
The oldest object on view documents an ugly reality, showing on brown paperboard one of the earliest known images of a slave in the US, accompanied by a bill of sale.
Posted inArt
Titus Kaphar and Ken Gonzales-Day Reveal the Fictions in Depictions
Although both artists in Unseen critique omissions in the art historical cannon and offer compelling counter narratives, it is not enough to place their work in neighboring museum galleries and call it a show.
Posted inArt
The Obama Portraits and the History of African American Portraiture
Like many African American portraitists, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley represent the Obamas as themselves, and as more than themselves.
Posted inArt
It’s OK to Feel Ambivalent About Michelle Obama’s Official Portrait
Too often, women of color are expected to support black artists in the abstract — sometimes at the expense of meaningful, critical dialogue.
Posted inNews
Obamas Open Up About Their Newly Unveiled Official Portraits
At the unveiling this morning, Michelle Obama spoke about her “instant connection” with Amy Sherald, while Barack Obama said he asked Kehinde Wiley “to bring it down just a touch.”
