Stop, Look, Listen: Three things to do this week.

This week's 'Stop, Look, Listen' might be just a little Freud centred..

STOP.
Lucian Freud Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery. 9th February- 27 May 2012

Grandson of Sigmund Freud and one of the country's most influential artists of his generation, Lucian Freud was renowned for his portraits, such as 'Benefits Supervisor Sleeping' and 'Naked Man with Back View'. He was also famous for his portrait of the Queen, which he refused to paint in any other style but his own, and the supermodel Kate Moss, who posed for him in 2002. This retrospective exhibition marks an opportunity for a review of his work after his death last year. 

LOOK. 

A Dangerous Method by David Cronenberg.

Starring Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender. Set at the beginning of the 20th Century, this film follows Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung's road to dispute in their respective Psychoanalytic theories.

LISTEN.

BBC Radio Four's Saturday Play.

Listen to Saturday's play again on iPlayer, or look forward to 'The Wolf Man' on the 18th February. 

Writer and playwright Deborah Levy has dramatised two of Freud's iconic case studies, 'Dora' and 'The Wolf Man'. 'Dora', set in 1899, finds a father imploring Sigmund Freud to treat his daughter after discovering her intention to end her life. 'The Wolf Man' focuses on 24 year old Sergei Pankejeff, a depressed son of a wealthy Russian landowner. 

BP Portrait Award 2011

I went to the annual BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery today, a free exhibition showcasing the very best in contemporary portrait painting; "From intimate and personal images of friends and family, to revealing paintings of celebrity sitters, the exhibition presents a variety of styles and approaches that together illustrate the outstanding and innovative work currently being produced by artists of all ages and nationalities". Five prize winners are shortlisted each year, but this year's selection didn't catch my eye as much as the painting's I have selected below. 

Katherine (and Millie) by Barbara Skingle

Barbara Skingle studied painting at Alberta College of Art and Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Her work has been seen at the annual exhibitions of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (1997, 2004) and in group exhibitions in Canada.

The portrait is of Skingle’s daughter, Katherine, with the family’s pet canary, Millie. The portrait was created from a combination of sittings, reference photographs and memory. Katherine has sat for her mother on a number of occasions, who says: ‘Katherine is tuned in to both the dark and light of this world which is why I have put her in a slightly defensive posture.’ (Text taken from National Portrait Gallery)

Abi by Nathan Ford

Nathan Ford took a BA (Hons) degree in fine art at Byam Shaw School of Art. His work has been seen in solo exhibitions in Bath and group exhibitions including those of the Royal Society of British Artists (2001, 2002) and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (1999–2006), whose Winsor and Newton Young Artist of the Year Award he won in 2001. His work was included in the BP Portrait Award in 2000 and 2010.
This portrait of Ford’s friend Abi was painted from a single sitting in February 2011. (Text taken from National Portrait Gallery)

Howard Zinn - A People's Historian by Raoul Martinez

Raoul Martinez left formal education at the age of seventeen in order to work as an apprentice in the studio of the artist Paul Benney. Since setting up his own studio, Martinez has forged a career as a portraitist and documentary film maker. He is working towards his first solo exhibition.

Shortly before his death last year, the historian, playwright and activist, Howard Zinn, granted Martinez an interview and sitting for his ‘Creating Freedom’ project. Among Zinn’s extensive list of publications, he is probably best known as the author of A People’s History of the United States(1980).  (Text taken from National Portrait Gallery)