Iconic: Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol

24 Jan-5 May 2025

Overview

Featuring major names of 20th century art including Francis Bacon, Peter Blake, Pauline Boty, Richard Hamilton, Gerhard Richter and Andy Warhol, Iconic: Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol brings rarely-seen works together to explore the ways artists are inspired by photography. 

The exhibition focuses on the period in the mid 20th century, particularly the 1960s, when many artists began to use photographs as sources for paintings. Often, the photographs were not simply appropriated as tools in picture making but were themselves the subject matter, resulting in paintings that are about imagery and the mediation of such images. The exhibition also reflects on the potency of the media and the construction of celebrity. Many artists used photos of celebrities as the basis of their works, and several illustrate a degree of nostalgia, even for the very recent past.