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Icons and Identities

Famous Faces from the National Portrait Gallery Collection
By Rab MacGibbon
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Icons and Identities, curated by Rab MacGibbon, explores the fascinating stories behind a range of iconic portraits from the National Portrait Gallery's collection. This art book examines how these portraits shape our understanding of identity, using insightful analysis and captivating visuals of influential figures throughout history. It offers a deep exploration into the ways portraits define and reveal personal and cultural narratives.
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Format: Hardback
$6099
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you have a fascination with portraiture and how it shapes our understanding of identity in art and culture. It offers a captivating exploration of iconic artworks, examining how portraits from different periods tell unique stories about individuals and society. This book is perfect for art enthusiasts and anyone intrigued by the interplay between art and personal identity.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Icons and Identities explores the portrayal of people as a human preoccupation from prehistoric art to digital media. Featuring internationally recognised sitters, it shows how artists in the western tradition have engaged with this fascination and made artworks with a remarkable diversity of form and function.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The National Portrait Gallery holds the world's most extensive collection of portraits: a museum of people, a gallery of stories and ideas, and a home of artistic masterpieces. It celebrates the power and creativity of individuals—artists as well as their sitters.

Icons and Identities draws upon the outstanding collections of the National Portrait Gallery to investigate and celebrate the variety and complexity of the genre. It brings together "icons"—the most famous faces from British history, from Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Isaac Newton to Audrey Hepburn and The Beatles—alongside less well-known sitters that provide a fascinating insight into the representation of identity in portraits. The book also includes some intriguing surprises to reflect the diversity of the National Portrait Gallery's collection and aims to introduce audiences around the world to exceptional portraits of many kinds.

This publication demonstrates how artists, working across a range of media, including painting, photography, and multimedia, have revealed the visually stimulating and intellectually vibrant tradition of portrait making. It is structured around a series of key timeless themes, with each section including a selection of works from various periods. This allows audiences to consider how artists and sitters have engaged with themes of power, fame, the self, innovation, identity, memory, and loss.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781855147188

Publisher: National Portrait Gallery Publications

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 01 April 2021

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: National Portrait Gallery Publications

Illustration: 90 Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 196.0mm

Height: 248.0mm

Weight: 860g

Pages: 136

Collections

Arts & Culture Non-Fiction Rab MacGibbon

About the Author

Rab MacGibbon is Curator, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Collections, at the National Portrait Gallery, London. He is a contributor to Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures from Hilliard to Oliver (2019) and The Lost Prince: The Life & Death of Henry Stuart (2012).

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