LONDON.- All prize values for the BP Portrait Award 2018 have been increased, making it one of the largest for any global arts competition, it was announced today, 28 November 2017, as the
National Portrait Gallery invites entries for the BP Portrait Award 2018. The first prize for the BP Portrait Award is to increase from £30,000 to £35,000, with second prize rising to £12,000 (previously £10,000); third prize £10,000 (previously £8,000); the BP Young Artist Award, awarded to one selected artist aged between 18 and 30, £9,000 (previously £7,000), and the BP Travel Award £8,000 (previously £6,000).
To enter, artists are invited to upload a photograph of their finished painting to the BP Portrait Award website, which will be viewed anonymously by the judges in the first round of the competition. The entrants who are successful in this round will then be invited to hand-deliver or courier their work to a venue in London for the second round of judging and final exhibition selection.
Artists can enter at npg.org.uk/bp between now and 22 January 2018. Full competition rules and guidance for digital submission can be found online. The BP Portrait Award 2018 exhibition will run at the National Portrait Gallery from 14 June to 23 September 2018.
2018 will mark the Portrait Award’s 39th year at the National Portrait Gallery and 29th year of sponsorship by BP. This highly successful annual event is aimed at encouraging artists over the age of eighteen to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work. The increasingly popular competition has a huge international reach, with the BP Portrait Award 2017 receiving 2580 entries from 87 countries. The exhibition, which featured 53 paintings, was seen by 234,604 people at the National Portrait Gallery.
The BP Portrait Award is one of the most important platforms for portrait painters. The winner also receives, at the Gallery’s discretion, a commission worth £7,000 (agreed between the National Portrait Gallery and the artist). All 2018 exhibitors will be eligible to submit a proposal for the BP Travel Award 2018. The aim of the award is to provide the opportunity for an artist to experience working in a different environment, in Britain or abroad, on a project related to portraits. The artist chosen as the winner of the travel award will receive £8,000.
Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘We are pleased to be able to announce this substantial increase to the BP Portrait Award prize fund as we call for entries for the 2018 Award. The competition, recognised as the most prestigious in the field of portrait painting in the world, attracts some of the best practitioners of the genre. We’re delighted that through the Award we are able to further support talented artists of all ages and from all parts of the globe to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work.’
Des Violaris, Director UK Arts and Culture BP, says: ‘We are delighted with the increased prize fund for the BP Portrait Award, which each year helps to encourage and inspire thousands of portrait artists to capture the stories of people from every walk of life and in all corners of the world. The BP Portrait Award is one of the most important platforms for portrait painters and BP is proud to be supporting the Award for the twenty-ninth year. Our aim in supporting the BP Portrait Award, and other cultural activities in the UK, is to bring to as wide an audience as possible the very best in arts and culture.’
The current BP Portrait Award 2017 exhibition tours to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery Exeter (4 October – 3 December 2017); Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh (16 December 2017 – 11 March 2018); Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens (24 March – 10 June 2018.)
First prize was won by Suffolk based artist, Benjamin Sullivan for Breech! a portrait of his wife Virginia breastfeeding their eight month old daughter. Second prize went to French painter and illustrator, Thomas Ehretsmann, for Double Portrait, depicting his pregnant wife Caroline. Third prize went to Antony Williams for Emma his portrait of model turned friend, Emma Bruce, completed in his studio in Chertsey. The BP Young Artist Award for the work of a selected entrant aged between 18 and 30 has been won by 26 year old New Zealand artist Henry Christian-Slane for Gabi, a portrait of his partner Gabi Lardies. The winner of the BP Travel Award 2017 was Casper White for his proposal to create works about music fans in clubs and concert venues in Berlin and Mallorca, representing an often youth-related subculture that is not traditionally recorded in portrait paintings.
