Unseen photographs, taken by Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney: Photographs 1963–64 Eyes of the Storm

An unprecedented exhibition, revealing – for the first time – extraordinary photographs taken by Paul McCartney.

28 June 2023 - 01 October 2023

Open daily: 10.30 – 18.00 Friday and Saturday: 10.30 – 21.00

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

Yevonde,National Portrait Gallery

Yevonde: Life and Colour

An exploration of the life and career of Yevonde, the pioneering London photographer

22 June 2023 - 15 October 2023

Open daily: 10.30 – 18.00 Friday and Saturday: 10.30 – 21.00

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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BP Portrait Award 2020 National Portrait Gallery

BP Portrait Award 2020

Selected from 1,981 entries by artists from 69 countries around the world, the BP Portrait Award 2020 represents the very best in contemporary portrait painting.

05 May 2020 - 01 October 2020

online

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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Cecil Beaton National Portrait Gallery

Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things

Closed until further notice

This major new exhibition explores the extravagant world of the glamorous and stylish ‘Bright Young Things’ of the twenties and thirties, seen through the eye of renowned British photographer Cecil Beaton.

12 March 2020 - 07 June 2020

daily 10.00 – 18.00/ Friday until 21.00

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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David Hockney National Portrait Gallery

David Hockney: Drawing from Life

The first major exhibition devoted to David Hockney’s drawings in over twenty years.

02 November 2023 - 21 January 2024

Open daily 10:00-18:00 Friday until 21:00

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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Pre-Raphaelite Sisters

This major exhibition is the first-ever to focus on the untold story of the women of Pre-Raphaelite art.

17 October 2019 - 26 January 2020

Open daily 10:00-18:00 Friday Lates until 21:00

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels

Created in close collaboration with the artist, Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels, explores the development of Peyton’s unique art from the 1990s to the present day.

03 October 2019 - 05 January 2020

Open daily 10:00-18:00 Friday Lates until 21:00

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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BP Portrait Award 2019

The annual BP Portrait Award exhibition.

13 June 2019 - 20 October 2019

Open daily 10:00-18:00 Friday Lates until 21:00

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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Cindy Sherman: Major UK Retrospective Announced By NPG

Cindy Sherman

A major new retrospective of works by leading contemporary artist Cindy Sherman.

27 June 2019 - 15 September 2019

Open daily 10:00-18:00 Friday Lates until 21:00

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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Martin Parr National Portrait Gallery

Only Human: Martin Parr

This major new exhibition brings together works by one of Britain’s best-known and most widely celebrated photographers, Martin Parr.

07 March 2019 - 27 May 2019

Open daily 10.00 – 18.00/ Fridays until 21.00

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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Thomas Gainsborough: A Thirst For Visible Originality – Edward Lucie-Smith

After various adventures away from its traditional subject-matter – the recent Michael Jackson show being a case in point, the National Portrait Gallery returns to familiar territory with a show devoted to Thomas Gainsborough, by general consensus one of the most brilliant portrait painters to have worked in Britain. Native-born into the bargain, unlike his predecessors Holbein and Van Dyck.

27 December 2018

BP Portrait Award 2018

The BP Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait painting competition in the world and represents the very best in contemporary portrait painting.

14 June 2018 - 23 September 2018

daily 10-6 Fridays until 9pm

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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Michael Jackson on the wall National Portrait Gallery

Michael Jackson: On the Wall

This landmark exhibition explores the influence of Michael Jackson on some of the leading names in contemporary art, spanning several generations of artists across all media.

28 June 2018 - 21 October 2018

Open Daily 10-6 Fridays Until 9pm

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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London Photography exhibitions

London’s Latest Must-See Photography Exhibitions

There are some thought-provoking and informative photography exhibitions on show in London at the moment. Ranging from the Barbican’s Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins which explores subjects on the edge of society to the four artists shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2018 at the Photographers’ gallery. Also just opened is the Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography which shows together Oscar Rejlander (1813–75), Lewis Carroll (1832–98), Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79) and Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822-65). Here is a selection of what’s on offer.

28 February 2018

Tacita Dean Portrait National Portrait Gallery

Tacita Dean: Portrait

This major new exhibition will focus on Tacita Dean’s portraiture primarily through the medium of 16mm film. The exhibition will be the first in the Gallery’s history to be devoted to the medium of film, and also reveals Tacita Dean’s own longstanding and personal interest in portraiture as a genre

15 March 2018 - 28 May 2018

Daily 10-6

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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Victorian Giants National Portrait Gallery

Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography

This major new exhibition brings together, for the first time, the works of four of the most celebrated figures in art photography, Lewis Carroll (1832–98), Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79), Oscar Rejlander (1813–75) and Clementina Hawarden (1822-65).

01 March 2018 - 20 May 2018

Daily 10-6

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

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