BP Portrait Award 2014, National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery award winners of the BP Portrait Prize arrive this summer for another superb display of world-class portraiture

The BP Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery is always an exciting fixture on the cultural calendar and in this 35th year of the award you will be delighted once again by the amazing diversity of submitted works. 

First prize winner this year is the German artist and illustrator Thomas Ganter for his painting ‘Man with a Plaid Blanket’, based upon a chance meeting with a homeless car-windscreen cleaner outside Frankfurt’s Städel Museum. Ganter suggests the pose of the man wrapped in a blanket is referential to the paintings of noblemen and saints inside the Städel Museum itself, a juxtaposition he hopes will drive the audience to discuss how the rich and poor can coexist so closely.  

Over to second prize, winner Richard Twose presents a darling portrait of stylish 76 year old Jean Woods who was featured last year in the Channel Four documentary, ‘Fabulous fashionistas’. Twose talks about how he was drawn to Woods’ vibrant personality and haunting gaze. Finally third prize is snatched by David Jon Kassan’s ‘Letter to my Mom’, a striking portrait of his mother with a tribute in Hebrew scrawled into the canvas: ‘Dear Mom, This painting is my way to spend more time with you, My way to meditate on our life together, And all of the earliest memories I have, All of my earliest memories from you.’     

Personal favourites in the exhibition include South Korean artist Yunsung Jang’s ‘Mother #1’, an enormous and highly detailed portrait of Jang’s mother that captures both her physical appearance and the tender relationship between mother and son. We also fell head over heels for the furiously energetic paint marks of Javier Palacios’ ‘Luciana’ (2013) and the fearlessness of Ben Ashton’s portrait of music writer and DJ, Princess Julia.