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The artist and the doctor

Art, war, scandal

Nothing black and white about the Greys

Marriage: a prolonged disaster

Immediately, there was a crackle

A meeting of minds

Hearts and craft

The long game

Larry Clark

Larry Clark's black-and-white documentary images of young outsiders reveal raw feelings. 

Ayman Kaake

This photo is a self portrait. So this is me. So you can see the eye resemblance. So, and this photo is inspired by my friends, my workplace.

Of Burke, Wills ... and wills

Infatuation and (ill-fated) exploration

2022 Annual Appeal

In 2022 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Mayatjara by Robert Fielding, a series of 24 photographs of Elders of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara community.

All the world's a stage

Joan Sutherland, Robert Helpmann and Raigh Roe

Tough & Tender Media Release

Photographs from internationally acclaimed artists Robert Mapplethorpe, Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Collier Schorr and Chris Burden along with contemporary Australian artists, Rozalind Drummond and Warwick Baker will call the National Portrait Gallery home during our extraordinary winter exhibition Tough and Tender.

The 1850s to the 1880s

The restrained and cultivated facial hair fashions evident through the first decades of the 1800s were on the wane by the middle of the century, when hirsute faces became mainstream.

Sean Slattery

This is Davide Di Giovanni and he was a principal dancer for the Sydney Dance Company for six or seven years. He got in touch with me to do some video work together and he was just so amazing.

Heidi Margocsy

Perrin is an amazing amazing woman, and what I wanted to do with this particular sitting was create something raw and stripped back.

Skin names

The first row of paintings depict stories relating to kinship, introducing significant women relatives.

Mia Boe

Mia Boe is a Narrm/Melbourne-based artist known for her haunting and evocative painting practice, informed by her Butchulla and Burmese ancestry.

Shifting the definition

Defiant commitment

Ngarranggarni

The third row of paintings come from Ngarranggarni (Dreaming).

Textiles Scientist Voted the People’s Favourite

The black and white portrait of an elderly woman with sidelong glance and irreverent, contemplative smile has taken out the people’s choice award in this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize.

Lovely Lillie and Dirty Bertie

Royal romps: illicit liaisons

The 1950s to the present day

Certain European leaders (needless to name) had the effect of making certain styles of facial hair decidedly undesirable in the years immediately after World War 2.

Bangarra brothers: songman, storyteller, dancer

Creative kin

John McRae

An interview with the photographer.

The 'Multi Exposed Hand'

Photographer Jozef Vissel talks about his ‘Multi Exposed Hand’ portrait of Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon.

Honour board

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges and thanks all its supporters.

Tim Fairfax, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by The Calvert-Jones Foundation 2018

Luther Cora

Yeah, so it's my daughter. So, I shot this last year, I think on the Gold Coast, we had a little lockdown period, couple of lockdown period.

NPPP 2009 exhibition essay

Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2009 Prize.

Andrew Campbell

An interview with the photographer.

Gary Grealy wins National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017

After months of anticipation, the winner for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 has been announced with renowned Sydney portrait photographer Gary Grealy taking out the award. George Fetting, guest judge for the 2017 Prize, was entranced with the evocative nature of the winning portrait Richard Morecroft and Alison Mackay.

2013-14 Acquisition Fund

This 1910 portrait of Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie) Roberts by Tom Roberts was brought into the Gallery's collection with the assistance of the Acquisition Fund in 2013.

2012-13 Acquisition Fund

The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

We encourage you to look, to feel, to think, to question and most importantly, to identify and connect.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 winner announced

Finalists have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Winner and Highly Commended for the National Photographic Portrait Prize since December. It is our pleasure to announce the Winner for 2018 is Lee Grant for her portrait titled Charlie and Highly Commended has been awarded to Filomena Rizzo for her portrait titled My Olivia.

Alienation

Segregated from their fellow humans in cellophane prisons, reference points are removed, so it is not certain whether these naked figures could be unwrapped, are about to be subsumed, or will forever be suspended in a plastic stasis.

2014-15 Acquisition Fund

Kristin Headlam's portrait of Chris Wallace-Crabbe was acquired with the support of the Circle of Friends in 2014.

Oz Punk

In 1976, without having been blooded on the Sydney or Melbourne pub circuit, The Saints recorded a single – ‘(I’m) Stranded’ – earning them the distinction of releasing a punk single before The Sex Pistols did.

Alex Frayne

An interview with the photographer.

All that fall

Focusing on the wide-ranging themes of loss and absence, All that fall: Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War creates a moving portrait of mourning and sacrifice as experienced on the Australian home front during the First World War.

Shirley Purdie

Born: 1947, Gilbun – Mabel Downs Station, WA
Works: Warmun, WA

Oz Rock

Two of the music industry’s highest-selling performers originated in suburban Australia. The Bee Gees started out in Brisbane, for instance, and AC/DC played their first gigs at a nightclub in inner Sydney.

Leah King-Smith

Born: 1957, Gympie, QLD
Works: Brisbane

Carol McGregor

Born: 1961, Hastings, New Zealand
Works: Brisbane

Arianne McNaught

An interview with the photographer.

Feather voted the people’s favourite

The National Portrait Gallery is thrilled to announce that the People’s Choice award for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize goes to Natalie Grono from Byron Bay for her photograph Feather and the Goddess Pool 2014.

Memories

The second row of paintings recall stories relating to specific sites, experiences and activities.

Protest!

Rock’s raw potency made it the ideal medium for fomenting protest. The 1970s, 80s and onwards saw calls for social and environmental justice ring out through song.

Brenton McGeachie

An interview with the photographer.

Twenty new portraits marking Portrait Gallery’s twentieth birthday

To celebrate the National Portrait Gallery’s twentieth anniversary as an institution, twenty portraits of outstanding Australian individuals have been commissioned for the permanent collection. This is the largest undertaking for the Gallery’s commissioning program in its twenty-year existence.

Liu Wei

Born 1965 in Beijing. Lives and works in Beijing.

Dancer

From letting loose in the loungeroom to enthralling audiences on stage, this exhibition celebrates dance and dancers.

History

How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be

2015-17 Acquisition Fund

From 2015 to 2017 the Acquisition Fund was focussed on Reg Richardson AM by Mitch Cairns, a finalist in the Archibald Prize 2014, and a great example of minimalist portraiture.

About the exhibition

Portrait of Rosie Batty Unveiled at Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a newly commissioned portrait of Australian domestic violence campaigner and 2015 Australian of the Year Rosie Batty.

Arianne McNaught

I think the most important thing in capturing candid shots is to never take the photo when people are expecting you to press the shutter. The more poignant moments are not the stock standard images of people looking at the camera smiling but after or before when they are really interacting with each other.

2021 Annual Appeal

In 2021 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Peter Brew-Bevan's portraits of athletes Turia Pitt, Leisel Jones OAM and Ellie Cole OAM.

Welcome home, Captain Bligh

The National Portrait Gallery will, next Tuesday, unveil an exciting new acquisition of irrefutable importance to all Australians. Portrait of William Bligh, in master’s uniform c. 1776, attributed to John Webber, is one of the earliest portraits of the contentious, historical figure, and extends the Gallery’s remarkable collection of early colonial portraits.

Jude Rae

Jude Rae’s high reputation rests on her austere, cerebral still lifes of gas canisters, electric jugs and jars, which she groups and rearranges for paintings that catch their difficult curves and reflections. Her self-portrait’s likewise thoughtfully composed.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

Images for media use will be available from 8 March 2018.

Jessica Mauboy, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Sony Music Entertainment Australia 2018

Andrew Gaze, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Trent Birkett 2018

L. Gordon Darling AC CMG

The Chairman, Board, Director and all the Staff of the National Portrait Gallery mourn the loss of our Founding Patron, who died peacefully in Melbourne this morning. He was 94.

Selected images

Take a peek at a selection of the portraits you can see in the exhibition.

Ken Done

With a mum who was married to a tradie, you’d think it a fair chance that the baby Jesus would have grown up with a dog in the house.

Architecture

Natural light and human proportions – the design by Johnson Pilton Walker

Portrait Donors

Darren McDonald

The wild balancing act of McDonald’s home décor (is that there as a joke? where do I actually sit down? is this ironic or what? what a lovely photo of Darren and Robin in Europe!) is reflected in his own personality.

Swimming every day

Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2015 Prize.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.

Nicholas Harding

Over the years the young Nicholas Harding got his hands on various mice and guinea pigs, but they served mainly to illustrate the concept of mortality. 

Exhibition themes

The four main themes of the exhibition: About face, Body politic, Skin deep, and Self reflex.

Annual Appeal

Tejal Shah

Born in 1979, Tejal Shah grew up in Chhattisgarh, central India, moving to Bombay in 1995.

Kristin Headlam

Basil grew into a speckled beauty – a long-legged leaper and an exceptionally vocal dog, with a great register of sounds, ascending in shock value from a whimper to a growl to a bark to a yelp that’s a violation of the ears.

Reflections

All that fall: Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War exhibition co-curators Dr Anne Sanders and Dr Christopher Chapman reflect on the evolution of the Gallery’s Anzac Centenary exhibition.

Vivan Sundaram

Born in 1943 in Simla, Vivan Sundaram’s long career has given him opportunities to work in a range of mediums – painting, installation, assemblage, photography, digital media and film.

FX Harsono

FX Harsono was born in 1949, just as the independence of the Indonesian nation was being established.

The more things change...

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2017 Prize.

Nadiah Bamadhaj

Born in Malaysia in 1968, to a Malaysian Muslim father and a New Zealander mother of Scottish descent Nadiah Bamadhaj studied Fine Arts in New Zealand, and is currently working on a PhD from Curtin University, Western Australia.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.

Seduce, Amuse, Entertain

Michael Desmond, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2007 Prize.

Arcadia: Sound of the sea

One night in the spring of 1970 in an old house in Whale Beach, north of Sydney, John Witzig, Albe Falzon and David Elfick put together the first issue of Tracks, playing Neil Young’s album Harvest over and over again as they pasted up galleys of type.

Uncommon Australians

Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.

Everybody, look serious

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2014 Prize.

Some prime ministers

Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.

Graeme Drendel

I like talking about Drendel’s pictures as if they expressed dreams of my own.

Some women you may not know

‘Everybody’s lives are built by so many influences, and for me, it is writers, artists and activists who have influenced how I think about the world.’

The Bare story

Curator, Penny Grist, reveals how this exhibition came to be

Faces of war

Lesley Harding, Curator, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne explores Albert Tucker’s experience of World War II, his interests in the intersection between psychology and creativity, and their influence on his portrait making.

Lucy Culliton

Most well-regarded pictures of chickens show them dead. A reliable way to tell if a chicken in a painting is dead is to check if it’s hanging upside down, because unlike, say, cockatoos, chickens don’t practise inversion for enjoyment in life.

NPPP 2016 exhibition essay

Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.

A non-material and non-physical portrait

Inner Worlds features the recently commissioned portrait of world-renowned philosopher of consciousness David Chalmers by Melbourne-based artist Nick Mourtzakis.

Less than six degrees of separation

Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.