A Modern Portrait at Scottish National Portrait Gallery

The information panel at the entrance stated the exhibition purpose was to explore ideas about achievement and society and fashion and celebrity and new artistic movements.    It did not explain what these terms meant or how they were interpreted.  This was left to the viewer and their assessment of the show.

I decided to restrict the range of what I measured – Sitter gender; Attribute as categorized by curator but assessed by me; field of expertise of sitter; medium; gender of artist.   I chose not to include ethnicity or the names of sitters or artists.  I counted and categorized every image.  I noted some sitters were represented several times, and some artists were also represented several times.

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• Contact UThe Modern PortraitTilda Swinton, b. 19I decided to restrict the range of what I measured – Sitter gender; Attribute as categorized by curator but assessed by me; field of expertise of sitter; medium; gender of artist.   I chose not to include ethnicity or the names of sitters or artists.  I counted and categorized every image.  I noted some sitters were represented several times, and some artists were also represented several times.The information panel at the entrance stated the exhibition purpose was to explore ideas about achievement and society and fashion and celebrity and new artistic movements.    It did not explain what these terms meant or how they were interpreted.  This was left to the viewer and their assessment of the show.

I decided to restrict the range of what I measured – Sitter gender; Attribute as categorized by curator but assessed by me; field of expertise of sitter; medium; gender of artist.   I chose not to include ethnicity or the names of sitters or artists.  I counted and categorized every image.  I noted some sitters were represented several times, and some artists were also represented several times.

Sitter	Attribute	Subject	Medium	Artist
1m 1f	Artistic society	Painters	Oil	F
1f	Artistic society	Writer	Oil	M
1m	Artistic society	Modernist composer	Oil	M
1f	Celebrity	Scottish politics	Oil	M
1m	Achievement, society, Celebrity	Composer	Oil	M
1f	Celebrity	Actress	Digital photo	M*
1f	Celebrity	Playwright	Oil	M
1m	Celebrity	Actor	Digital photo	M*
1m	Celebrity	Actor	Digital photo	F
1f	Celebrity	Singer	Digital photo	M
1m	Celebrity	TV presenter	Digital photo	F + M
1f	Celebrity	Actress	Oil	F
1m 1f	Achievement	Psychoanalyst	Oil	F
1m	Achievement	Airline business	Oil	M
1m	Achievement	Scientist	Digital photo	F + M
1m 1f 1c	Achievement	Civil rights lawyer	Digital photo	F
1m	Achievement, society, celebrity	Politician	Digital photo	M
2m	Achievement, celebrity	Sport	Digital photo	M
1m	Achievement	Musician	Digital photo	M
1f	Achievement	Painter	Oil	F
1f	Achievement	Artist	Glass etching	F
1f	Celebrity	Actress	Digital photo	M
1f	Celebrity	Actress	Digital photo	M
1m	Celebrity	Actor	Digital photo	M
1m	Achievement	Director	Digital photo	M
1m	Celebrity	Actor	Digital photo	M
1f	Celebrity	Actress	Digital photo	M
1m	Achievement, Celebrity	Actor	Digital photo	F
1f	Celebrity	Actress	Digital photo	F
1f	Celebrity	Actress	Digital photo	F
1m	Achievement	Choreographer	Digital photo	M
1m	Achievement	Dancer	Digital photo	M
2f	Achievement, Celebrity	Dress designers	Digital photo	M
1m	Achievement, Celebrity	Sport	Collage, photos	M
1f	Achievement	Writer/poet	Bust	F
3m	Achievement, society	Oncologists	Oil	M
1m	Achievement	Painter	Oil	M
1m	Achievement	Writer	Bust	M
1f	Society	Patron of arts	Oil	M
1m	Achievement	Scholar	Oil	F
1f	Achievement	Surgeon	Oil	M
1m	Achievement	Writer	Oil	M
1m	Achievement, celebrity	Artist	Oil	M
1m	Achievement	Musician	Oil	M
1m	Achievement	Writer	Oil	M
1f	Achievement	Painter printmaker	Black chalk	M
1m	Achievement, celebrity	Law	Oil	M
1f	Achievement, celebrity	Music	Oil	M
1m	Achievement	Music	Oil	F + M
1m	Achievement	TV presenter	Oil	M
1f	Achievement, celebrity	Actress	Pastel	M
1f	Society, celebrity	Queen Elizabeth II	Oil	M
1m	Achievement	Politics	Oil	F
1m	Achievement, celebrity	Politics	Oil	M
1m	Achievement, celebrity	Medicine	Oil	M
1m, 1f	Achievement, celebrity	TV + ballet	Oil	M
1f	Achievement	Ballet	Digital photo	M
1f	Achievement	Ballet	Digital photo	M
1m	Achievement	MP/writer	Oil	M
1m	Achievement, celebrity	Chemist	Bust	M
3m	Achievement	Medicine	Oil	M
1m	Celebrity	Theatre	Oil	M

44 male sitters                                              44 images by male artists

29 female sitters                                           13 images by female artists

1 child sitter                                                  3 images by a male and a female artist

Male sitters by male artists 27                    Female sitters by male artists 18

Male sitters by female artists 4                   Female sitters by female artists 6

M and F sitters by male  artist 1                 M and F sitters by female artist 3

Male sitters by male and female artist 3

Questions arising

One artist was named KK Dundas – difficult to tell gender.  Why?

New artistic movement was largely digital photography, with one glass etching.  Why no textiles, video or print?  How do they define New Artistic Movements?  Is it about static media? 

Why are these people significant enough to be in a national gallery?  What were their achievements, if this is a category of its own?

What policies regarding collection and representation do they have on line, accessible to the general public?

Does the categorization preclude many young people being included?

I found it difficult to categorise sitters into the identified categories of the curator.  My framing as a white westernized woman, who limits her following of media or celebrity, meant I was restricted in my ability to differentiate between achievement and celebrity.  If sitters were actresses I tended to put them in the celebrity group, even if I did not recognize the name.  Many of the people depicted were associated with arts and media, with a minority of business leaders, scientists, educators and royalty. 

Then I reassessed the portraits by gender of sitter, and the value for which I knew them, or what was on their image statement. 

Gender of Sitter	Value according to image statement/my opinion
M + F	No value
F	Scottish Politician
M	Modernist artist
F	Socialist feminist and anti-Nazi
M	Musician
F	Actress, fairer casting/equality campaigner
F	Criminologist/writer
M	No value
M	No Value
F	Asperger’s disability
M	No value
F	No value
F	Psychology – strength/creativity of the psyche
M	Business
M	Scientist - Higgs Bosun research
M/F/C	Legal racism/injustice campaigner
M	Lesser known MP. No value
M	Rugby player.  Parkinson’s campaigner
M x 2	No value
M	No value
F	No Value
F	No Value
F	No Value
F	No Value
M	No Value
M	No Value
M	No Value
F	Alopecia campaigner
M	Scottish Independence & Science Education trust
F	Ethnic minority campaigner
F	Ethnic minority campaigner
M	No Value
M	No Value
F	No Value
3M	Cancer medicine
M	No Value
M	No Value
F	Supports Artists
M	No Value
F	Identity, adopted, ethnicity
M	No Value
M	Medicine
3M	No Value
M	Politician
M	No Value
M	No Value
F	Medicine, paediatrics and gynaecology
M	No Value
F	No Value
F	No Value
M	No Value
M	Scottish Nationalist
M	No Value
M	Medicine – ulcers
M/F	Miscarriage of justice campaigner
F	No Value
F	No Value
M	Law Reform
F	No Value
M	No Value

Male sitter no value 24                    Male sitter Identified value 14

Female sitter no value 11                Female sitter Identified value 12

Male and female sitter no value 1  Male and female sitter Identified value 2

I was tired by this stage and I did not note down the gender of the artist.  I did not go round the exhibition in exactly the same order, as other viewers were present, so I cannot correlate by the previous data.