The Ulster Museum in Belfast Celebrates "The Queen: Art and Image"

Written by Caitlynn Ferguson Sunday, 12 February 2012 20:15

Belfast, Northern Ireland.- The Ulster Museum is proud to present "The Queen: Art and Image", on view at the museum until January 15th 2012. To mark The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the National Portrait Gallery Created this innovative touring exhibition bringing together 60 of the most remarkable and resonant images of Elizabeth II spanning the 60 years of her reign - some on public display for the first time. "The Queen: Art and Image" will tour to British venues before being shown in London in 2012. From Cecil Beaton and Annie Leibovitz to Pietro Annigoni and Andy Warhol , "The Queen: Art and Image" will be the most wide-ranging exhibition of images in different media devoted to a single royal sitter. Formal painted portraits, official photographs, media pictures, and powerful responses by contemporary artists will be shown in an exhibition which explores both traditional representations and works which extend the visual language of royal portraiture.

Documenting the changing nature of representations of the Monarch, the exhibition will show how images serve as a lens through which to view shifting perceptions of royalty. This perspective reflects changes in the social scene and historical context, and the exhibition highlights important developments and events: from The Queen’s relationship with the press and the miners' strike, to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the advent of new technology. This textured view of the period is supplemented by archival material – from newspapers to film footage, postage stamps to consumer ephemera. Among the highlights from the works from life are Annigoni’s hugely popular life-size 1969 commission for the National Portrait Gallery , Lucian Freud ’s 2000-01 portrait from the Royal Collection and Justin Mortimer ’s painting where The Queen’s head floats away from her body against a huge background of flat vibrant yellow.

Among the exhibited photographers for whom The Queen sat are Annie Leibovitz, Dorothy Wilding and Cecil Beaton - including his iconic Westminster Abbey Coronation image - and Chris Levine ’s highly unusual photograph from 2004 of The Queen with her eyes closed. "The Queen: Art and Image" will show a significant selection of unofficial portraits of the British monarch from major 20th century artists including those of Gilbert and George , Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter , as well as less formal portraits by such photographers as Eve Arnold , Patrick Lichfield and Lord Snowdon . Collectively, the exhibition celebrates and explores the startling range of artistic creativity and media-derived imagery that The Queen has inspired. It also probes the relation of this imagery to a world of changing values during a reign that has engaged the attention of millions.


The Ulster Museum was founded as the Belfast Natural History Society in 1821 and began exhibiting in 1833. It has included an art gallery since 1890. Originally called the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, in 1929, it moved to its present location in Stranmillis. The new building was designed by James Cumming Wynne. In 1962, courtesy of the Museum Act (Northern Ireland) 1961, it was renamed as the Ulster Museum and was formally recognised as a national museum. A major extension constructed by McLaughlin & Harvey Ltd to designs by Francis Pym was begun in 1962 and opened in 1964. It is in the Brutalist style, praised by David Evans for the "almost barbaric power of its great cubic projections and cantilevers brooding over the conifers of the botanic gardens like a mastodon". Since the 1940s, the Ulster Museum has built up very good collection of art by modern Irish, and particularly Ulster-based, artists. In 1998, the Ulster Museum, which includes Armagh County Museum , merged with the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and the Ulster-American Folk Park to form the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland. In July 2005, a £17m refurbishment of the museum was announced, with funding coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL, usually pronounced as 'Dee-Kal'). Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.nmni.com

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