Paul Nurse ('Paul')

© National Portrait Gallery, London. Image credit: National Portrait Gallery, London

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This portrait evolved through a series of meetings in New York and London. From a distance the painting appears sharply defined and close-up it has an intimacy and slightly blurred, abstracted effect. The large-scale painting focuses on a cropped head study, in which every pore and follicle is revealed. Brooks's intention and interest lies in attempting to reveal Nurse's essential make-up. It is an attempt, in the artist's words, to 'get lost in somebody's structure'. Nurse's face appears to leap out of the picture plane and in its landscape format the painting has a cinematic quality. A highly accomplished example of photo-realism, this commissioned work extends the Gallery's range of contemporary portraiture.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

Paul Nurse ('Paul')

Date

2008

Medium

acrylic on linen

Measurements

H 171 x W 271 cm

Accession number

6837

Acquisition method

Commissioned, made possible by J. P. Morgan through the Fund for New Commissions, 2008

Work type

Painting

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National Portrait Gallery, London

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