National Portrait Gallery Publications strana 2 z 2

Lucian Freud was one of the world's greatest realist artists. Working only from life, he once claimed, 'I could never put anything into a picture that wasn't there in front of me.' This revelatory publication features a selection of beautifully reproduced images from his sketchbooks. Most of the sketches - which include works in pencil, pastel and watercolour from across the artist's long career - are published here for the first time. These fascinating images extend our understanding of Freud's work and demonstrate the scrutiny he brought to his subjects. The sketchbooks, now in the archive of the National Portrait Gallery, London, include portraits of Freud's family members, friends and lovers. Designs for book covers, images of his beloved dogs and horses, landscapes and interiors appear among nudes, still lifes and several sketches that relate to major works. Around and between the drawings are Freud's annotations and jottings - appointments, racing tips, notes, musings - which, with startling immediacy, provide a glimpse into the working life of one of the twentieth century's most important artists. The book includes an insightful essay by Martin Gayford, who sat for portraits by Freud and knew him well, and an illustrated chronology of the artist's life.

In more than 2,000 issues, British Vogue magazine has acted as a cultural barometer, putting fashion in the context of the larger world in which we live - how we dress, how we entertain, what we eat, listen to, watch, who leads us, excites us and inspires us. The century's most talented photographers, illustrators and artists have contributed to it. In Lee Miller it had, unexpectedly, its own war photographer; in Norman Parkinson, Cecil Beaton, David Bailey, Snowdon and Mario Testino the greatest portrait and fashion photographers of their generation; and in Beaton and Irving Penn two giants of twentieth-century photography. From 1892, American Vogue chronicled the life of beautiful people - their clothes, parties, houses and habits - and the magazine was exported for intrigued British readers. In 1916, when the First World War made transatlantic shipments impossible, its proprietor, Conde Nast, authorised a British edition. It was an immediate success, and over the following ten decades of uninterrupted publication continued to mirror its times - the austerity and optimism that followed two world wars, the 'Swinging London' scene of the sixties, the radical seventies, the image-conscious eighties - and in its second century remains at the cutting edge of photography and design. Decade by decade, Vogue 100: A Century of Style celebrates the greatest moments in fashion, beauty and portrait photography. Illustrated throughout with well-known images, as well as the less familiar and recently rediscovered, the book focuses on the faces that shaped the cultural landscape: from Matisse to Bacon, Freud and Hirst, from Dietrich to Paltrow, from Fred Astaire to David Beckham, from Lady Diana Cooper to Lady Diana Spencer. It features the fashion designers who defined the century - Dior, Galliano, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, McQueen - and explores more broadly the changing form of the twentieth-century woman.

During her lifetime, the Belgian - born British actress Audrey Hepburn (192993), star of such films as Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffanys, My Fair Lady, Charade and Two for the Road, was recognised around the world. Posthumously, her popularity has endured and her image continues to be reproduced in a variety of international cultural contexts. Unlike other collections, in this new book the authors call attention to the circumstances in which pictures of Hepburn were published and consumed, thereby illuminating more generally our changing relationship with such images over the course of the twentieth century. Hepburn's career is charted through over 145 portraits and supporting images from her early years in London as a student of ballet and a performer on the West End stage, to her Hollywood heyday and her final years as a special ambassador for the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF). Alongside work by the photographers whose portraits defined Hepburn's image and shaped her career are publicity photographs and images made on - and off - set during the production of her films, as well as family photographs and informal archive news pictures. Possessing the features, height and poise of a model, Hepburn collaborated with a number of couturiers, notably Hubert de Givenchy. Her image often graced the pages and covers of fashion magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, for which she was photographed by Richard Avedon, whose work is represented here together with portraits by Cecil Beaton, Antony Beauchamp, Philippe Halsman, Angus McBean, Norman Parkinson and Irving Penn.

This book provides a unique opportunity to see an inspiring range of portraits from contemporary photographers selected from thousands of submissions. The works included are not only about the subjects, people who appear intriguing, defiant or relaxed but also reveal the outstanding skill of the photographers, whose intelligence and diligence enable them to capture a moment in time, and to convey something of the spirit of those photographed. Fully illustrated in colour throughout, the book features all the selected entries from this year's competition, as well as comments and insights from the judges. The catalogue includes an extended essay about contemporary portraiture.

This striking book explores contemporary portraiture from the past decade. The selection features cutting-edge new work from the international art community and reflects an increasing interest in identity worldwide. Organised thematically, the book examines seven key strands of portraiture: The Body; The Self-Portrait; The Invented Portrait; The Anonymous Portrait; Social Identity; The Celebrity Portrait. With an essay by Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, that locates contemporary portraiture within a historic tradition, 21st Century Portraits examines current trends, showcasing the wide range of media today's artists are using. This book includes an extensive bibliography and is an essential reference work in the field of twenty-first-century portraiture. It will present many images to academic, curatorial and general audiences, including museum and gallery visitors and general art book buyers in the trade for the first time.