Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Competition

14 October – 25 November 2011

Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Competition and Exhibition

To view images by all of the participating artists please click here.

The £10,000 Prize Winner of the 2011 Competition is Celia Paul

Out of 508 entries, 170 works were selected for the exhibition at Kings Place Gallery. The judges, Rachel Borchard, Sister Wendy Beckett, Robert Travers, William Feaver and William Varley shortlisted works by Maggi Hambling, Marcelle Hanselaar, Cherry Pickles, Celia Paul, Fred Crayk and  Mary Mabbutt, but unanimously awarded the £10,000 prize to Celia Paul.  Her prize-winning entry is characterised by a merciless, almost forensic scrutiny that transcends mere appearance.

Celia Paul

Celia Paul was born in 1959 in Trivandrum, India and attended the Slade School of Art, London from 1976 – 1981. She has exhibited widely and has works in many public collections including the British Museum, the V & A and the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Lucian Freud was of great influence to Paul during her student years and she appeared in many of his paintings. 

In the last 20 years Celia Paul has emerged as one of the most remarkable and original painters working in the figurative tradition. Her paintings and drawings are intimate portraits of people she knows well and invariably depict a single model or group. "My work is about people and their emotions", she has said. Her dark toned paintings are reminiscent of old masters and share an interest in the effect of light. Her paintings often have a monumental quality, but she is equally adept at capturing emotion in a small soft-ground etching.

Celia Paul’s self-portrait, as well as other works in the exhibition by Donald Sutherland, Laura Gressani, Fred Crayk, Lindsay Simons, Diana Jean Cumming, Daniel Shadbolt, Andrzej Kuhn, Shanti Panchal, Eleanor Bowen,  Maggi Hambling, Marcelle Hanselaar, Hannah Webb, Elizabeth Shields, Anthony Eyton, Leslie Marr, Helena McGrath, Brita Granstrom, Susan Light, Mary Mabbutt, Greg Tricker, Georgina Sleap, Peter Holt, David Caldwell, Thomas Newbolt, and Sally Muir were purchased by the Borchard Foundation to be added to the existing collection of 101 Self-Portraits acquired by Ruth Borchard in the post-war years.

Ruth Borchard's own collection, by leading British 20th Century artists, was a labour of love growing out of her interest in diaries and other autobiographical material and her method of acquiring it, by offering the artists concerned the modest sum of 20 guineas, was both shrewd and cheeky. However, she was rarely refused. 

The Ruth Borchard Collection with its new acquisitions will be shown at Kings Place Gallery in the autumn of 2012.

Please click here to view the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Exhibition Page. 

With acknowledgement to Fairplay Towage and Shipping.

14 October – 25 November 2011

Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Competition and Exhibition

Kings Place Gallery
Kings Place
90 York Way
London N1 9AG

Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm

Saturday and Sunday 12 – 6pm

Admission Free

T: 0207 520 1485

E: kpg@kingsplace.co.uk

W: www.kingsplacegallery.co.uk