LUMINARY DRAWINGS
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON, 2019
12 April – 1 October 2019
This display unveils a major new commission of portrait drawings of leading film directors by the artist Nina Mae Fowler (b.1981). Each director was depicted whilst watching a film of importance to them; intriguingly their film choice is not revealed. With their faces illuminated only by the light of the screen, Fowler took several stills of the directors and made preliminary sketches that formed the basis of the final pencil and charcoal drawings. The intimate scale of the works draws the viewer into the minds of the people behind the lens, conveying the inspiration felt by the directors when watching great cinema.
The sitters included were, Amma Asante, Paul Greengrass, Asif Kapadia, Ken Loach, Sam Mendes, Nick Park, Sally Potter, Ridley Scott and Joe Wright