insideKENT Magazine Issue 34 - January 2015 | Page 19

COVERSTORY

© Benjamin Beker

THE WORLD-CLASS

Turner Contemporary
In just three and a half years, Turner Contemporary has welcomed more than 1.4 million
visitors. For 2015, the gallery has an ambitious and stellar programme, which continues to
bring historical and contemporary art together in new and dynamic ways.

Turner Contemporary's
2015 programme adds
to its already extensive
list of world-class
exhibitions and
installations, including
artists such as: Carl
Andre; John Constable,
Tracey Emin, Helen
Frankenthaler, Sol LeWitt,
Piet Mondrian, Auguste
Rodin, JMW Turner and
Edmund de Waal.

In this extraordinary new exhibition
Turner Contemporary becomes a
frame through which self-portraiture
is re-evaluated in the 21st century,
sparking conversations on history,
celebrity, collecting, gender, mortality
and contemporary approaches.
Artists have been recreating their
own image for centuries. From selfadvertisement and preserving
legacy, to figurative studies, political
commentary and biographical
exploration self-representation has
shaped Western art. Central to the
exhibition is the last known Selfportrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck
(1599-1641), Court Painter to
Charles I. Regarded as Britain’s first
‘celebrity’ artist, Van Dyck was also
the most influential portrait painter
ever to have worked in Britain and
his legacy was to last for the next
three centuries.

The gallery welcomes in
2015 with Self: Image
and Identity – selfportraiture from Van Dyck
to Louise Bourgeois,
which takes an expansive
look at the self-portraiture
genre.
In a world where 'selfies'
have become everyday
Sir Anthony van Dyck, Self-Portrait, 1640-1
Oil on canvas
expressions and
© National Portrait Gallery, London ;Photo: Philip Mould & Co
‘Britishness’ is being
redefined, what is the role of self-portraiture and how has it shifted through
the history of art to the present day?

Sir Anthony van Dyck’s remarkable
Self-portrait was acquired by the
National Portrait Gallery in 2014

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through a major public appeal with
the Art Fund, and with thanks to a
major grant from the Heritage
Lottery Fund (HLF) and the support
of other major individual and trust
supporters, and nearly 10,000
members of the public. Turner
Contemporary will be the first venue
where visitors can see Van Dyck’s
Self-portrait as it embarks on a
three-year national tour, supported
by the Art Fund and HLF.
The exhibition, which includes over
100 works, explores the diverse
ways in which artists have chosen
to represent themselves and their
identities through painting, drawing,
sculpture, photography and film.
More than 70 works from the
National Portrait Gallery will be
showcased alongside key 20thcentury and contemporary selfportraits from public and private
international collections.