Art and photo exhibition:
The evolution of men’s fashion, masculine identity and the male self-image over the last 500 years is the subject of an exhibition which has opened at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Looking Good: The Male Gaze from Van Dyck to Lucian Freud explores how men have indulged their enthusiasm for fashionable clothes, careful grooming and elaborate hair styling to project their image to the world.
The exhibition includes paintings of attired courtiers of the 16th and 17th centuries to photraphs of modern celebrities, such as David Beckham and Tinie Tempah.
Some challenge perceptions of beauty and masculinity, including the artist Grayson Perry dressed in female clothes and the androgynous “Smutty” adopting a feminine pose.
The exhibition brings together 28 works from the collections of the SNPG and the National Portrait Gallery in London, and features by a self-portrait by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), which was acquired by the NPGL in 2014, following a major public appeal.
Featured artists include Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nicholas Hilliard and Jonathan Owen.
There is an exclusive, specially commissioned video and soundscape by the Edinburgh-based, award-winning band Young Fathers.
Christopher Baker, director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, commented: “This thought-provoking exhibition uses outstanding portraits from Edinburgh and London to explore fascinating issues about male image and identity that were as relevant in the seventeenth century as they are today.”
LOOKING GOOD: THE MALE GAZE FROM VAN DYCK TO LUCIAN FREUD
24 June – 1 October 2017
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Queen Street, Edinburgh
Admission FREE
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