The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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9:34am on Monday, 30th December, 2024:
Outburst
My wife and I have been watching Portrait Artist of the Year, which we record and watch on Sunday evenings. We missed a couple of Sundays, so were a few episodes behind. Thus, it was only yesterday that we watched the final (which was broadcast about three weeks ago).
Hmm.
In the first rounds of the series, we attempted to identify the artist whose work looked least like the sitter, assuming that this would be the eventual winner. We were duly proven correct. If I hadn't been told that the winning commission was a portrait of daytime TV broadcaster Lorraine Kelly, I would not have known that it was depicting daytime TV broadcaster Lorraine Kelly (and not because I don't know what daytime TV broadcaster Lorraine Kelly looks like).
Kelly herself liked it, and the curator of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery where it will be hung was complicit in the decision to choose the winning artist over a manifestly better one, but I'm left wondering what a portrait is supposed to be if it captures neither the look nor the soul of the sitter.
There's a decent analysis of the final episode, including a photo of the final commision, here. Its author is more forgiving than I am.
I think I'll still watch Portrait Artist of the Year 2025, but as a spoof of an arts programme rather than an arts programme.
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Copyright © 2024 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).