The National Portrait Gallery has acquired five self-portraits by female artists as part of a three-year project to enhance the representation of women in its collection.
The gallery, which is currently closed for a major refurbishment, said the works highlighted stories of women who have helped shape British culture.
The portraits, created between the early 1970s and 2019, address issues of identity and gender stereotypes, said Flavia Frigeri, a curator at the NPG.
“They are not just portraiture of likeness, someone simply depicting themselves. The importance of these five acquisitions is they show the multifaceted identity of an artist, but also of women more generally,” she said.
They include the first painted self-portrait by a black female artist in the gallery’s collection. Everlyn Nicodemus’s Självporträtt, Åkersberga layers multiple faces in recognition of her roles as artist, writer, mother and wife.
Speaking about the painting,…
