National Portrait Gallery buys Hockney portrait
NPG buys Hockney portrait
Martin Wainwright
Friday September 28,2007
David Hockney Portraits exhibition and funds from its 150th Anniversary Gala
A large recent self-portrait by David Hockney has been bought by the National Portrait Gallery from funds raised last year through its 150th Anniversary Portrait Gala and gift aid donations from tickets sold to visitors of its highly successful David Hockney Portraits exhibition. It will go on display alongside a selection of other recent acquisitions to coincide with the opening of the Gallery’s major autumn exhibition Pop Art Portraits on 11 October.
While the Gallery has an excellent collection of photographs of Hockney, and a fine self-portrait drawing and etching, this will be its first painted portrait by the Yorkshire-born artist. The work in oil on canvas from 2005 shows the artist with his friend and former assistant, the New York-based curator, Charlie Scheips. Hockney stands in the foreground in front of a canvas wearing a black shirt and red braces and holding paintbrushes while Scheips sits on a table at the back scrutinising work in progress. read more