Picture this, the refurbishment of the National Portrait Gallery

Three years and millions of pounds have gone into the refurbishment of the National Portrait Gallery, writes Claudia Lee.

The gallery’s doors reopened following the most extensive transformation the building has seen since 1898.

More than 1,100 portraits are on display at the gallery in St. Martin’s Place, Charing Cross, a third more than when it closed for refurbishment.

It’s more than just a lick of paint.

They’ve built a new wing, completely rehung the collection, and introduced public spaces and a new learning centre.

You walk from the entrance straight into modern day.

Windows and roofs that have been sealed for years are open, washing the gallery in natural light.

On the ground floor a new History Makers display includes humble shots of Marcus Rashford and Stormzy sitting tight with his mother, setting the precedent for the gallery’s modernisation.

The National Portrait Gallery is also big on female artists.

On the first-floor landing is a display of work by Sarah Lucas, Issy Wood, Ithell Colqhoun, Khadija Saye, Helen Chadwick and more.

This is a deliberate focus.

Their project, Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture aimed to enhance the gallery’s representation of women.

Forty eight per cent of the portraits in the 20th and 21st century galleries are of women – up from 35 per cent.

Eleven percent of all the work on display are portraits of ethnic minority sitters – up from three per cent.

The gallery has tried to expand the archive with portraits by contemporary artists of historical figures like Frederick Douglas, an American social reformer and abolitionist, by Elizabeth Payton and Toussaint L’Ouverture, a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution, by Lubaina Humidi.

There is also a stunning photograph of Malala Yousafzai, an activist for girls’ education and the youngest Nobel Prize winner.

Cast in black and white, the photograph has been taken by Iranian-born artist and film-maker, Shirin Neshat.

Ms Neshat took a series of photographs before selecting two onto which she has hand inscribed in calligraphy a poem by the Pashto poet Rahmat Shah Sayel from Peshawar, written in 2011.

In the main contemporary collection they’ve gone for a salon hang, which means instead of giving every painting or photo a whole wall, they’ve mixed them all together in one space.

Now the Queen sits next to Mick Jagger.

The gallery is not one to miss, spanning six centuries and now telling an improved and reformed archive of the people who have contributed to the history of the UK.

 

Picture: Visitors at the opening of the National Portrait Gallery Picture: Tom Lee