Two artists shortlisted for this year's BP Portrait
Award at the National Portrait Gallery have been chosen for their impressions
of their children.
Susanne du
Toit's Pieter and John Devane's The Uncertain Time will be among 55 works chosen
to be exhibited between 20 June and 15 September.
The winner's
prize has been increased by £5,000 to £30,000, making it one of the largest
global art prizes.
Nearly 2,000
artists applied from 77 different countries this year.
John Devane, a
teacher at Coventry University with an MA from the Royal College of Art has
been chosen for his group portrait of his three children, which he painted over
three years and shows children emerging from childhood.
It marks the
second time his work has been included at the Portrait Award - his piece, In
the House of The Cellist was shown in the 1995 exhibition.
Susanne du Toit
was educated at the University of Pretoria and the Massachusetts College of Art
in Boston but is now based in Crowthorne, Berkshire. The painting features her
35 year-old son Pieter.
She said:
"I look to the body to provide as much expression as the face. Having said
that, the averted gaze of this portrait, which was his choice, struck me as
characteristic of his reflective character, and became intensely
engaging."
The winner of
the prize, now in its 34th year, will also receive a commission for the
National Portrait Gallery worth £5,000, while the second placed artist will
take home £10,000.
Sandy Nairne,
director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, said: "These two
outstanding portraits show the strength of painted portraiture today."
Although the
competition is for those over the age of 18 with no upper age limit, the Young
Artist Award - worth £7,000, is also presented to an artist aged between 18 and
30.
The ceremony
takes place on Tuesday 18 June, at which the prize-winners will be announced
ahead of the exhibition opening, which welcomed 255,982 visitors in 2012.
Source: BBC
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