The BP Portrait Award is an annual

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

ure competition held at the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is the successor to the John Player Portrait Award. It is the most important portrait prize in the world, and is reputedly one of the most prestigious competitions in

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

History

British Petroleum took over sponsorship of the competition in 1989 from John Player & Sons, a tobacco company which had sponsored it from its inception in 1980, and has sponsored it since. The presence of both sponsors has triggered protests, with the group Art Not Oil (part of the international Rising Tide network) being responsible for most of those against BP. In 2016, The Museums Association conducted a formal investigation into BP's sponsorship when Art Not Oil alleged that the company influenced curatorial decisions and used its association with the National Gallery to further its political interests both domestic and international. The

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

opens in June each year and runs until September. First prize is typically £30,000. In the early years of the century, the prize went up from £5,000, and its catchment area was gradually extended from residents of the UK and is now unrestricted. Until 2006, the competition has been open to under-40s only. Since 2007, it is open to anyone over the age of 18 and a separate BP Young Artist Award is granted to the best portrait artist between 18 and 30. In 1993, Tom Hallifax was used to advertise the awards. In 2012 the competition received 2,187 entries from 74 countries (including 1,500 from the UK) of which 55 paintings were selected to be exhibited.

Winners

John Player Portrait Award

*1980 *1981 *1982 –

Humphrey Ocean Humphrey Ocean (born 22 June 1951) is a contemporary British painter. Early life Humphrey Ocean was born Humphrey Anthony Erdeswick Butler-Bowdon, on 22 June 1951 in Sussex, England. He went to Ampleforth College and in 1967 went to Tunbridge ...

*1983 – Michael R. Taylor *1984 – Rosemary Beaton *1985 – Jeff Stultiens *1986 – Ivy Smith *1987 – Alison Watt *1988 –

Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to: *Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet *Allan Ramsay (artist) or Allan Ramsay the Younger (1713–1784), Scottish portrait painter *Allan Ramsay (diplomat) (1937–2022), British diplom ...

*1989 – Paula MacArthur &

Tai-Shan Schierenberg Tai-Shan Schierenberg (born 1962) is a British portrait painter, based in London. He was the joint winner of the 1989 BP Portrait Award and is Head of Painting at the Art Academy in London. Early life and career Tai-Shan Schierenberg was born i ...

– joint first prize winners

BP Portrait Award

*1990 – Annabel Cullen *1991 –

Justin Mortimer Justin Mortimer (born 1970) is an English painter, recognized for his paintings of well known high society including Harold Pinter, Sir Steve Redgrave and Queen Elizabeth II. He won the National Gallery's BP Portrait Award in 1991. Early life ...

*1992 – Lucy Willis *1993 – Philip Harris *1994 – Peter Edwards *1995 – Ishbel Myerscough *1996 – James Hague *1997 – James Lloyd *1998 – Thomas Watson *1999 – Clive Smith *2000 – Victoria Russell *2001 –

Stuart Pearson Wright Stuart Pearson Wright (born 1975, Northampton) is an English portrait artist, winner of the BP Portrait Award. Life and works Wright went to school in Eastbourne, Sussex and graduated from Slade School of Fine Art, University College of London (1 ...

*2002 –

Catherine Goodman Catherine Anne Goodman LVO (born 1961) is an English artist, and co-founder with King Charles III of the Royal Drawing School. Biography Goodman was born in London in 1961. She studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London from 1979 to ...

*2003 –

Charlotte Harris Charlotte Harris (born 1981 in Ashford, Kent) is a portrait artist who currently works from her studio in Folkestone. Biography Harris studied at Leeds Metropolitan University, during which time she worked as a studio assistant for the artis ...

*2004 – Stephen Shankland *2005 – Dean Marsh *2006 – Andrew Tift *2007 –

Paul Emsley Paul Emsley (born 25 August 1947) is a British artist who worked in South Africa until 1996 and is now resident in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England. He is a former lecturer at the Stellenbosch University and the 2007 winner of the BP Portr ...

*2008 – Craig Wylie and Praneet Arora *2009 – Peter Monkman *2010 –

Daphne Todd Daphne Todd OBE (born 27 March 1947) is an English artist who was the first female President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters from 1994–2000, and who won the BP Portrait Award 2010 with a painting of her 100-year-old mother's corpse.

*2011 – Wim Heldens *2012 –

Aleah Chapin Aleah Chapin (born March 11, 1986) is an American painter whose direct portrayals of the human form have expanded the conversation around western culture’s representations of the body in art. Described by Eric Fischl as “the best and most d ...

*2013 –

Susanne du Toit Susanne may refer to: *Susanne (given name), a feminine given name (including a list of people with the name) *, later USS ''SP-411'', a United States Navy patrol boat in commission from 1917 to 1919 *, the proposed name and designation for a vess ...

*2014 – Thomas Ganter *2015 – Matan Ben-Cnaan *2016 – Clara Drummond *2017 – Benjamin Sullivan *2018 – Miriam Escofet *2019 – Charlie Schaffer *2020– Jiab Prachakul

SELF Portrait Prize

* 2013 Jan MikulkaThe Royal Society of Portrait Painters: Jan Mikulka: SELF, 2013
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Selected works

It has become a BP Portrait Awards convention that a single work is selected to be used prominently on that year's posters and other publicity materials, and for the cover of the year's exhibition catalogue. Recent "showcase" portraits include: *2004 – "Caroline" by James E Crowther *2005 – "Portrait of Chantal Menard" by Sean Cheetham *2006 – "Matthew" by Ben Jamie *2007 – "Winter Portrait" by

Ingolv Helland Ingolv Helland (born 1974) is a Norwegian portraitist who has developed an international reputation. In the 2007 exhibition for the prestigious BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom), Helland's self-portrait was o ...

*2008 – "Konjit" by Maryam Foroozanfar *2009 – "Georgie" by Mary Jane Ansell / "On Assi Ghat" by

Edward Sutcliffe Edward Sutcliffe (born 1978) is a British painter based in London. He is known for still-life and portraiture, and he has painted prominent figures such as Neil Kinnock and Glenda Jackson. Education Sutcliffe was educated at Aberystwyth Universi ...

(used by National Gallery Scotland) *2010 – "Blue Coco" by Shaun Downey *2011 – "Geneva" by Ilaria Rosselli del Turco *2012 – "Rosie and Pumpkin" by Vanessa Lubach / "Richie Culver" by Alan Coulson *2013 – "Inner Dialogue" by Jamie Routley *2014 – "Engels" by Patrik Graham / "Gina and Cristiano" by Isabella Watling (used by National Gallery Scotland) *2015 – "Portrait of Esta Sexton, aged 12" by Paul P Smith *2016 – "Francesca" by Daniele Vezzani / "Tad (Son Of The Artist)" by John Borowicz (used by National Gallery Scotland) *2017 – "Lemn Sissay" by Fiona Graham-Mackay *2018 – "Laura" by Shawn McGovern *2019 – "Manresa" by

Frances Borden Frances Borden (born November 1970) is a British artist known for portraiture, particularly self-portraiture. She has been a prizewinner in the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London on three occasions. Biography Franc ...

BP Visitor Choice

Each year, the BP Visitor Choice competition offers visitors to the highly popular BP Portrait Award exhibition the opportunity to vote for their favourite portrait in the exhibition. *2006 – Vanessa Garwood *2007 – Hynek Martinec *2008 – José Luis Corella *2009 – José Luis Corella *2010 – Michal Ožibko *2011 – Jan Mikulka *2012 – Colin Davidson *2013 –

Lionel Smit __TOC__ Lionel may refer to: Name *Lionel (given name) Places *Lionel, Lewis, a village in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland *Lionel Town, Jamaica, a settlement Brands and enterprises *Lionel, LLC, an American designer and importer of toy trains and mo ...

*2014 – Yunsung Jang *2015 – José Luis Corella *2016 – Jean-Paul Tibbles *2017 – Rupert Alexander

BP Travel Award

The BP Travel Award is an annual award allowing artists to experience working in a different environment on a project related to portraiture. The successful applicants work is exhibited at the Portrait Gallery the following year. Country of each artists project shown in brackets below. *1998 –

(UK) *2000 – Si Sapsford (Iceland) *2001 – Alan Parker (UK) *2002 – Daisy Richardson & Jessica Wolfson (Russia/China) *2003 – Ulyana Gumeniuk (Russia) *2004 – Darvish Fakhr (Iran) *2005 – Joel Ely (Spain) *2006 – Toby Wiggins (UK) *2007 – Gareth Reid (Finland) *2008 – Emmanouil Bitsakis (China) *2009 – Isobel Peachey (Belgium/Switzerland) *2010 – Paul Beel (Greece) *2011 – Jo Fraser (Peru) *2012 –

Carl Randall Carl Randall (born 1975) is a British figurative painter, whose work is based on images of modern Japan and London. Education Randall is a graduate of The Slade School of Fine Art London (BA Fine Art), the Royal Drawing School London (The Dra ...

(Japan) *2013 – Sophie Ploeg (Belgium/UK) *2014 –

(US) *2015 – Magali Cazo (West Africa) *2016 – Laura Guoke (Greece)

References

External links

"Painting of artist's mother aged 100 wins BP Portrait Award"
(telegraph.co.uk 23 June 2010)
"BP Portrait Award 2010: Full frontal at the National Portrait Gallery"
(guardian.co.uk, 23 June 2010)
"Three finalists compete for BP Portrait award prize after record entry"
(guardian.co.uk 21 April 2009)
Search guardian.co.uk, 'National Portrait Award'
(more than fifty articles, as of August 2010)
thesundaytimes.co.uk, 'National Portrait Award'
(more than eighty articles, as of August 2010)
Art Not Oil
{{BP British art awards Culture in London National Portrait Gallery, London Awards established in 1980 1980 establishments in the United Kingdom