BP portrait prize 2009

This years BP portrait prize at the national portrait gallery was really good. There were a few particular paintings i loved. First, Maggie by Sue Rubira, above, is a portrait of her mother, the light is what really drew me to the portrait. Of her work Rubira says ‘I chose to position her purposefully under a sky light which presented her in the natural, unembellished state most familiar to me.'

Black Mirror by David Nipo was another piece that immediately struck me. The portrait is of Nipo’s colleague and former teacher Aram Garshuni, with whom he runs Hatahana school of drawing and painting in Tel Aviv. The title for the painting comes from a traditional story about a painting competition in which one artist used a dark mirrored surface to reflect his opponent’s work and so claim it as his own.
Nipo's work is really intriguing as from far away you almost see just a silhouette of a man but as you move closer you are able to make out more of the mans face and upper body. This effect and the very dark colours used in the painting make it an eerie image, it is almost asthough the man is not wanting to show his complete identity.


Emmanouil Bitsakis was the winner of last years travel prize which was on display again this year. Alongside his winning portrait was his sketch book entitled Faces of the Uigur through song and dance. The book was filled with illustrations of the people he came across in Uigur in Xinjiang, north-west China. The Uigur are a national minority in China who predominate in this region. Originating from Turkic peoples the Uigur remain culturally distinct from the Han Chinese and their exceptional music and dance idiom, Muqam, is a core pillar of their identity and culture. I thought it was interesting how the viewer could see a completely different culture through these quick sketches, through what people are wearing and their actions.