SHE was a surprise hit in Ireland in 2011. Now a touring exhibition which celebrates the Queen’s forthcoming Diamond Jubilee – The Queen: Art and Image – has arrived at the Ulster Museum. Enthusiastically reviewed by distinguished critics the show includes work by Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud, Cecil Beaton, Annie Leibovitz and Pietro Annigoni.
Kim Mawhinney, Head of Art, National Museums Northern Ireland, said: “This exhibition shows how the art of portraiture has changed dramatically from the 1950s to the present day through various media. It features formal painted portraits, official photographs, media pictures, and powerful responses by contemporary artists. Early works in the exhibition including the photography can be interpreted as quite reverential whereas some of the modern portraits can be seen as controversial or even subversive”.
The Queen: Art and Image offers a significant selection of unofficial portraits by major 20th century artists including those of Gilbert and George and Gerhard Richter as well as less formal portraits by photographers such as Eve Arnold, Patrick Lichfield and Lord Snowdon. It demonstrates too how artists and photographers have succeeded or failed in their attempts to portray Queen Elizabeth. Organised by the National Portrait Gallery in London in collaboration with National Galleries of Scotland, Ulster Museum, and the National Museum of Wales the show, which has been Edinburgh during the summer, is at the Ulster Museum from October 14 to January 15, 2012. It will be at the National Museum in Cardiff from February 4 – April 29, 2012 and at the National Portrait Gallery in London from May 17 to October 21, 2012. (Click on any image to enlarge it).
Coronation Cross Gilbert & George, 1981 Tate: Purchased 1982
Queen Elizabeth II Dorothy Wilding, 1952 © William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/ National Portrait Gallery, London.
Elizabeth and Philip Potent Gilbert & George, 1981 © Gilbert & George.