On and off, I've tended to read quite a bit. So, I thought I'd put up some reviews of books as I read them. In time, I may go back and add reviews of some of the books I read in the past. Not massively exciting, but I suppose it may be of interest to someone, somewhere (perhaps).
BP Portrait Award 2009
This little guidebook to the award is rather fun. We saw the exhibition on the same afternoon as the RA exhibition, and it was a lot of fun. It's a shame that the reproductions of the paintings, though high quality, are so small. At this scale, it's difficult to tell the difference between photo-realistic and just near-photo-realistic. Subtleties of style go away, and the differences between the egg tempura and oils disappears, despite being such a difference in the flesh.
Having said that, it's still a good record. Despite the lack of details of the execution in reduced form, most entries would also work effectively as photographic portraits, and it's a good reminder of what we saw on the day. There were some stunning pieces, with the best generally shying away a little from the most photo-like representation.
Having said that, we found the first place award a little odd. Mary Jane Ansell's work, to us, captured alienness far better than Peter Monkman's prizewinner. Hey ho, we're not the judges....
Permalink. Posted 23:05, Mon, 20 Jul 2009.
There is also a complete index of the books.
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