The 2011 BP Portrait Award Shortlist

Louis Smith  -  Holly  -  oil on canvas, 8 feet tall

The one painting which,  judging by media attention, is the front-runner in this year's BP Portrait Award Competition has to be Holly, a monumental work by 42-year-old artist Louis Smith from Manchester, England.  In the piece, Holly (the British model Ivory Flame) plays a female version of Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the mortals.  When Zeus had discovered the theft, he punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock and allowing an eagle to eat his liver from the Titan's live body.  Each day, Prometheus' liver would grow back, and the ordeal would begin anew.  Holly is seen in the portrait at the point of the allegory when the eagle is once again approaching to tear into the prisoner's skin.  She is looking directly at the eagle as it comes toward her, "with a calm strength and resilience, accepting the fate that lies before her," states Smith.  "It is a heroic gesture of composure in the face of adversity.  One could put a modern day spin on it," suggests the artist,  and see the portrait as a portrayal of person "having the courage and perseverance to weather life's storms, no matter what."¹

Louis Smith beside his painting, Holly, in its massive, tabernacle frame

Holly is an example of what Smith refers to as a "narrative portrait."  It is a genre which allows the sitter
to be placed in a historical or mythological setting as befits that person's view of himself, or how they wish they could be.  Such paintings can trace their origins to ancient Greece, where nobles commissioned portraits depicting themselves as scholars, athletes, or heroes, but are probably more familiarly recognized in Renaissance "donor portraits," in which the person requesting the painting was added to famous stories in the form of a bystander, or sometimes even as a participant;  in many Florentine church frescoes, for example, the Medici family members are prominently displayed as characters in important religious scenes.

Last Portrait of Mother by Daphne Todd was the 2010 BP Portrait Award Winner

iDeath (oil and acrylic on canvas) by Michal Ozibko, was significantly more popular with the public
 than the actual 2010 award winner.

Despite Holly making headlines, it is by no means guaranteed to win the coveted £25,000 prize.  It is not unusual for a painting which is commonly popular, to be dismissed by the exhibit's judging panel.  This happened last year when the runaway favorite among the public, iDeath by Michal Ozibko, was beaten for the top prize by Daphne Todd's painting of her deceased mother (iDeath was not one of the 4 images on the 2009 shortlist).  Even among the four people on the jury of the 2011 competition, there was no consensus as to the inclusion of the piece.  Jonathan Jones, a critic for The Guardian and one of the four panelists on the jury, seems to championing the work, but even he appears to like the work more for the debate the painting is sparking, than for its technical and visual merits.  Who would have expected that, "in our sophisticated times, the only work that can still shock us is a 19th-century oil painting that worships the artist's idea of beauty."²

Detail from Holly

Will Holly, with its style firmly grounded in 19th century Academic training (and the Victorian Era's habit of masking pruriency with mythology), be able to claim the top prize?  Certainly, it would be another positive step in validating the genre's place in contemporary art.  It will be interesting to see if, as Jones puts it, the "shock of the old," will be enough to earn Louis Smith first place in the BP Portrait Awards.

Holly in progress.

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Who would you vote for?  Take the poll on the left hand side of this blog, and vote on your favorite of the four paintings shortlisted for the 2011 BP competition.  The paintings are shown below.

The poll has closed, and the most popular painting was that of Louis Smith, with 43% of the vote.  Ian Cumberland took 36% of the vote;  Wim Heldens 18%;  and Sertan Saltan, 1%.  Now we just need to wait and see who the judges will pick!

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Ian Cumberland  -  Just to Feel Normal  -  oil on linen,  59 X 39³⁄₈ in.

Ian Cumberland (b. 1983) lives and works in County Down, Northern Ireland. Since graduating in Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Ulster in 2006 he has had a solo exhibition at the Albermarle Gallery in London and has won several awards. Ian’s work is represented in public collections in Ireland. He was a BP Portrait Award exhibitor in 2009. His shortlisted portrait is an enigmatic half-smiling head-and-shoulders study of a friend, who has a tuft of short blond hair and slightly closed left eyelids that perhaps indicate a more melancholy demeanor. “This is a painting of a friend whose story is like many others from my generation that have fallen victim to themselves and their preferred habits,” says Cumberland. “The title ‘Just to Feel Normal’ refers to his answer when asked why he continues along his chosen path.”

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Wim Heldens  -  Distracted  -  oil on canvas,  29¹⁄₂ X 21⁵⁄₈ in.

Wim Heldens (b. 1954) is a self-taught, professional artist who lives in Amsterdam and whose work has been seen in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States. He was a BP Portrait Award exhibitor in 2008 and 2010. His sitter is Jeroen, a 25-year-old philosophy student to whom the artist has been a father figure since he was four. He has sat for him over 20 times, and is pictured here leaning on a section of wall with a pencil in his hand wearing the black and gray of which Heldens says, “He only seems to be wearing these days.” The simple white studio walls are used as basics for his composition, focusing on his sitter in the light from the window. ‘I have been fascinated with painting Jeroen in all stages of life through growing up. While I have painted him many times in groups, once in a while there is the desire to paint a simple portrait of just him. Now, he is an intelligent and sensitive young man’.

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Sertan Saltan  -  Mrs. Cerna  -  oil on canvas, 16¹⁄₈ X 20 in.

Born in 1982 in Eskisehir, Turkey, Sertan Saltan now lives and works in Avon, Connecticut, where he is developing a studio. He studied painting at a famous atelier in Istanbul before moving to the United States in 2006 to continue his studies at New York State University where he gained a BFA in Product Design. His sitter, Mrs. Cerna, is the younger sister of a friend in New York City, who is caught glancing at the artist, almost menacingly, in her hair rollers and latex gloves sharpening a large knife. “The contrast of knife, gloves and rollers brought both humour and horror to mind,” he says. “The animated sharpening of the knives and thoughtful facial expressions were burned into my mind’s eye. I wanted to capture on canvas that moment which allows the viewer to meet this extraordinary woman and experience the richness and complexity of her preparation for Thanksgiving dinner.”

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Louis Smith  -  Holly  -  oil on canvas, 12 X 8 ft. (including frame)

Louis Smith (b. 1969), from Manchester, studied painting at Sheffield Hallam University and scene painting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He has exhibited in Britain and Italy and at the 2009 BP Portrait Award. His eight-foot portrait shows a naked model called Holly handcuffed to a rock in a wild cave-like landscape. The Allegory of Prometheus is re-imagined in female form. Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals; as punishment he was bound to a rock while an eagle ate his liver daily only for it to grow back to be eaten the next day. Holly looks into the eagle’s face with calm resilience, accepting her fate. “It’s a message of composure in the face of adversity, something we can all draw strength from in our struggle to make a daily living.” The portrait has a huge gilt frame with a marble plaque at the base, inscribed with the name “Holly.” “It’s an extravagant attempt to illuminate the Baroque style,” says Louis, who was helped with set, frame and background painting by Carmel Said.

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The above biographies were retrieved from Auction Central News.

¹Smith, Louis.  The Holly Project.  Retrieved April 16, 2011 from {www.paintaportrait.org/gallery/holly/}.

² Jones, Jonathan, (2011). BP Portrait Award 2011:  The Shock of the Old.  Retrieved April 16, 2011 from {www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/14/bp-portrait-award-louis-smith-holly}.