Amy Winehouse portrait goes on display at the National Portrait Gallery

Amy Winehouse portrait goes on display at the National Portrait Gallery


A portrait of Amy Winehouse made shortly after her death has been bought by the National Portrait Gallery.








Amy-Blue by Marlene Dumas (left) a portrait of singer Amy Winehouse who died in July 2011 Photo: PA





By Ben Bryant

11:36AM GMT 26 Nov 2012


4 Comments




The pale blue oil is the first painted portrait of the singer to be acquired by the gallery, and was created by South African-born, Amsterdam-based artist Marlene Dumas.


It was bought for an undisclosed sum with support from art fund-raising charity the Art Fund and goes on display today.


Using a palette of blue and black with hints of pink and white, the painting is cropped tightly on Amy Winehouse's head on a canvas just larger than a sheet of A4 paper.


Sarah Howgate, Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London, said: "Dumas’s liquid handling of paint carries tremendous emotive power.


"Detail bleeds into and out of her work, directing and dispersing the gaze of the viewer. The rich, translucent blues of this portrait allude to Amy Winehouse’s musical influences as much as to the melancholy details of her career."



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Marlene Dumas has been producing portraits for 30 years, working primarily from photographic sources to create her distinctive, typically close-cropped paintings.

Her work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale and in solo exhibitions at the Tate in 1996, the Pompidou Centre in 2001 and MoMA in 2006.

Amy Winehouse is already represented in the National Portrait Gallery Photographs Colleciton in photographic portraits by Mischa Richter and Venetia Dearden.

Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, said: "The National Portrait Gallery is very pleased to acquire this important portrait of an influential singer and songwriter, and I am grateful for the help of the Frith Street Gallery and the Art Fund that has made it possible."

I can't say it looks much like her.!!