The Scottish National Portrait Gallery to show 'Vanity Fair Portraits:Photographs 1913-2008' |
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| Monday, 10 December 2007 00:05 |
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Edinburgh, Scotland - The National Galleries of Scotland announces the largest ever sponsorship of an exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Lloyds TSB Scotland will sponsor the Gallery’s major summer exhibition, Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008, showcasing some of the greatest portrait photographs of the twentieth century, which were taken for, or published in, Vanity Fair magazine. On exhibition 14 June - 21 September 2008. The exhibition will feature some 150 images from the high profile magazine’s early period (1913–36), which will be displayed, for the first time, with photographs from the contemporary Vanity Fair (1983-present). The six-figure sponsorship is the largest ever in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s history. Susan Rice, Chief Executive, Lloyds TSB Scotland said: “We are tremendously pleased to play our part in bringing such an iconic exhibition to Scotland. This prestigious collection will undoubtedly be a hugely popular attraction, and we will work together with our long-term partners at the National Galleries of Scotland to ensure we attract new visitors to the National Portrait Gallery as well as regulars.”
National Galleries of Scotland Director General, John Leighton, said: “This is the largest ever sponsorship of an exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and we are delighted to be renewing our long-standing relationship with Lloyds TSB Scotland, who have generously supported a series of major exhibitions at the National Galleries. This is an exhibition that will appeal to everyone, and we hope it will encourage a great many new visitors to visit the Gallery.” From the beginning, British, Irish and American authors were frequently profiled and their writings published in Vanity Fair, and among the vintage portraits shown in the exhibition will be iconic images of H.G. Wells, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Rebecca West, Ernest Hemingway and George Bernard Shaw. The magazine’s mix of artistic seriousness and popular celebrity meant that commissioned portraits of these authors, and of artists such as Claude Monet and Augustus John, were displayed alongside profiles of actors, musicians and athletes. Vanity Fair Portraits will present a rare opportunity to see some of the definitive portraits of the ‘Jazz Age’, including now classic studies of Louis Armstrong, Josephine Baker and Noël Coward. The selection of portraits will also include some previously unpublished and unseen images, including two portraits of author Virginia Woolf from a sitting with photographers Maurice Beck and Helen MacGregor in 1924. Although Vanity Fair suspended publication in 1936, it was resurrected in another period of decadence and excess, the 1980s. Its purpose remained true to the original publication: to record modern men and women of culture, stature and talent. As in the early period, portrait photography was the graphic bedrock of the magazine. In the tradition of editor Frank Crowninshield (1914-36), the revived monthly commissioned the world’s leading portrait photographers, among them Helmut Newton, Nan Goldin, Herb Ritts, Harry Benson, Mario Testino, Jonathan Becker and Bruce Weber. Vanity Fair’s iconic photographs continue to make news. Since the magazine’s re-launch in 1983, cover images including the Reagans dancing (1985), a very pregnant Demi Moore (1991), a formal portrait of President Bush’s Afghan War Cabinet (2002) and most recently actresses Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley photographed naked (2006) have been embedded in the collective cultural consciousness. TOUR Visit the National Galleries of Scotland at : www.nationalgalleries.org Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
Vanity Fair Portraits will include celebrated subjects such as Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin and Jean Harlow as captured by legendary photographers including Edward Steichen, Cecil Beaton, Baron De Meyer, Man Ray and George Hurrell. From the magazine’s re-launch in 1983, the works of photographers including Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, Bruce Weber and Mario Testino will be featured, depicting a wide range of subjects from Arthur Miller to Madonna. 
