The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London has entered into a partnership with the photographic agency Magnum Photos.
Portraits of prominent women in British life, taken by Magnum-listed women photographers, will enter the permanent collection of the newly reopened gallery following the project, which is part of Reframing the Narratives: Women in the Portraita three-year partnership with the Chanel Culture Fund which aims to strengthen the representation of women in the NPG Collection.
The initiative included the acquisition in 2022 of Självporträtt, Åkersberga, a self-portrait by artist Everlyn Nicodemus, the first painted self-portrait by a black artist acquired by the museum.
The Magnum project will see seven new photographic works on display. Among the models in the new series are Cambridge University classic Mary Beard, who poses among busts of classical male figures at the British Museum, where she is currently a trustee.
20-year-old environmentalist Bella Lack, activist Amika George, who has campaigned for free menstrual products in the UK, and actress Rose Ayling-Ellis, who was born deaf and is also pictured, have acquired national recognition for his role. like Frankie Lewis in the BBC EastEnders.
The women were photographed by one of Magnum’s most celebrated photographers, documentary and conflict photographer Susan Meiselas, as well as the agency’s former president, Olivia Arthur, and current president, Cristina de Middel. .
Portraits of two of the sitters – Lack and Ayling-Ellis – will be displayed in a new NPG gallery titled story makerswhich was created with the support of the National Heritage Lottery Fund Gallery.
After a three-year closure and a complete reassessment of its collection, the now reopened NPG increased the representation of women artists exhibited in post-1900 galleries by 129%, while the number of seated women exhibited in post-1900 galleries increased by 134%.
Almost half (48%) of the total number of portraits on display made after 1900 now feature women, compared to a third in 2020.
The project is led by a dedicated curator who works for the gallery: Flavia Frigeri, who joined the gallery in 2020 and whose job title is Chanel Curator for the Collection. Yana Peel, the former director of the Serpentine Gallery in London, now works as global head of arts and culture at Chanel.
