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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
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Not perspiring, but glowing.
The cultural history of radiance.
About Face article
Angus Trumble explores the creative manifestations of radiance.
Danger boy
About Face article
I didn’t ever meet the American artist Chris Burden but about 20 years ago I wrote to him. I was after the loan of some photographic prints of his most famous performance: he had arranged for a friend to fire a bullet so it would graze his arm.
Dementia and the arts
About Face article
That principle of equity of access has ever since been a noble aspiration for all public art museums, as it is for us here at the National Portrait Gallery.
The eye and the heart
About Face article
Nici Cumpston immerses herself in the collective vision of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020.
Queen Victoria
About Face article
Last Sunday I had the privilege of appearing at the Canberra Writers’ Festival in conversation with Julia Baird. The subject of our session was Julia’s recent biography, Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman who Ruled an Empire.
A bear of great substance
About Face article
Just in time for Christmas, Angus reflects on the most special present he has ever received.
Audacity, audacity, audacity
About Face article
Angus delves into the biographies of two ambitious characters; Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir John Pope-Hennessy.
The medallion
About Face article
In recent years I have become fascinated by the so-called Sydney Cove Medallion (1789), a work of art that bridges the 10,000-mile gap between the newly established penal settlement at Port Jackson and the beating heart of Enlightenment England.
Back track
About Face article
Penelope Grist finds photographer Matt Nettheim re-visiting a formative and fulfilling career tram stop.
Indexing, the art of
About Face article
The first index I created was for my first book, and, to my astonishment, that was almost twenty-five years ago.
Talking heads
About Face article
In their own words lead researcher Louise Maher on the novel project that lets the Gallery’s portraits speak for themselves.
Portrait dendrochronology
About Face article
Angus's latest Trumbology is accompanied by the following caveat: 'This one is reeeeeeally geeky.'
Stubbs and the horse
About Face article
One of the chief aims of George Stubbs, 1724–1806, the late Judy Egerton’s great 1984–85 exhibition at the Tate Gallery was to provide an eloquent rebuttal to Josiah Wedgwood’s famous remark of 1780: “Noboby suspects Mr Stubs [sic] of painting anything but horses & lions, or dogs & tigers.”
Portraiture in a Bleak House
About Face article
It may seem an odd thing to do at one’s leisure on a beautiful tropical island, but I spent much of my midwinter break a few weeks ago re-reading Bleak House.
Giving a dam
True south #1
About Face article
Ensconced and meditative in crisp Tasmania, Joanna Gilmour pays tribute to passionate green advocate and photographer Olegas Truchanas.
Staying home
True south #2
About Face article
Joanna Gilmour brings a mindful Douglas Mawson’s perspective to bear on the concept of isolation.