Icons and Identities Hardcover

Identity is complex, multifaceted and profoundly personal, and artists have developed innovative methods with which to explore it in images of both icons and less well-known figures. Icons & Identities examines how artworks encourage us to think about who we are and what we value, and illustrates how we are seen by society, through the variety, diversity and complexity of portraiture.

The works of art draw on a range of periods and highlight the ways in which artists and sitters have investigated themes of fame, power, love and loss, identity, innovation, and the self-portrait. Whether they are the product of the sixteenth or twenty-first century, portraits reveal and celebrate our shared humanity.

Format: 24.8 x 19.6 cm

Pages: 136 pages

Illustrations: 90 images

Binding: Hardback

Category: Portraits in art/Portraits

More about the author:

This is edited and has an introduction by Rab MacGibbon, a Cross-Collections Curator at the National Portrait Gallery.

This text has been edited by Tanya Bentley, a Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery. 

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The National Portrait Gallery holds the world’s most extensive collection of portraits: a museum of people, a gallery of stories and ideas, and a home of artistic masterpieces. It celebrates the power and creativity of individuals – artists as well as their sitters. Icons and Identities draws upon the outstanding collections of the National Portrait Gallery to investigate and celebrate the variety and complexity of the genre. It draws together ‘icons’ – the most famous faces from British history from Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Isaac Newton to Audrey Hepburn and The Beatles – alongside less well-known sitters that provide a fascinating insight into the representation of identity in portraits. It also includes some intriguing surprises to reflect the diversity of the National Portrait Gallery’s collection and to introduce audiences around the world to exceptional portraits of many kinds.