The Portrait Now
After a major refurbishment, the National Portrait
Gallery In London is back in business this week as the Queen opens the new late-20th-century galleries and two major exhibitions of modern portraiture In the four months before the reopening, Omnibus filmed the private life of the gallery as it reassessed its role as a record of public and private faces.
The film looks at the gallery's traditions, discovers how portraits are commissioned, chosen, rejected and even improved upon, and invites visitors to give their opinions of the works on display.
Among those in the new exhibitions is John Mortimer , who sat for artist Tai-Shan
Schierenberg. "I don't like looking at myself at all, " says Mortimer. " shave in the dark without a mirror.... But I'm very proud of this portrait. It looks like how I feel."
Producer Patricia Wheatley Series editor Nigel Williams