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by Cinden Lester

The National Portrait Gallery's latest exhibition, Glossy, presents familiar, candid, posed, cheeky and confronting faces from the portrait galleries of the 90s - magazines.

We started with a general observation that magazines are such a prolific forum for portraiture, yet we don't really think of photographs in magazines as formal portraits,' explained Exhibition Curator, Magda Keaney.

'We absorb magazine images all the time, and in many ways they shape the way we see ourselves. Compare this with the way we think about the Archibald Prize for example, held once a year, yet thought of as one of the primary outlets for portraiture in this country. I guess what Glossy is saying is portraiture is more than that.'

In the exhibition, the likes of Cate Blanchett, Miranda Otto, Geoffrey Rush, Nick Cave and Monica Lewinsky keep company with Spike Milligan, Dave Graney and Sir John Gorton on the walls of the refurbished Old Parliament House in Canberra.

And while some of the faces are international celebrities, all of the photos are by home grown talent.

'We decided to focus on Australian photographers because as we started digging, there was just so much talent that it made sense,' said Keaney.

Keaney and the team worked with photographers such as Polly Borland, Bleddyn Butcher and Derek Henderson, who provided their prints for the exhibition. The result is an interesting mix of prints including some using the latest computer technology.

'I had the idea that the images should be big and pinned to the wall. For some photographers this just wasn't possible, so those works are framed and I think the combination of formal and less formal presentation works really well,' said Keaney.

'Faces are the currency of magazines. Magazines keep up with things in a way that a museum or portrait gallery never could, or probably never should, because those faces that appear in magazines come and go and that's just the nature of the publication.

'The faces that appear in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery are more enduring but there is a cross over - Nick Cave for example is the subject of magazine portraits as well as the subject of the Gallery's first major commission by the late Howard Arkley. Magazines, like portrait galleries, present histories, stories and biography. Both want to communicate, reach people and get a message across,' said Keaney.

Glossy is on at Old Parliament House Canberra until 31 October 1999.

The National Portrait Gallery and Old Parliament House are within the Communications, Information Technology and the Arts portfolio.

Contact
National Portrait Gallery at Old Parliament House, 02 6270 8222 or email npg.mail@dcita.gov.au or visit the Gallery online at www.portrait.gov.au

• Document ID: 11419 |
• Last modified: 5 February 2008, 6:02pm