National Portrait Gallery Purchases Amy Winehouse Portrait

By Zoe Craig Last edited 136 months ago
National Portrait Gallery Purchases Amy Winehouse Portrait

The National Portrait Gallery have bought a new portrait of singer Amy Winehouse, with help from the Art Fund.

The painting by Marlene Dumas, called Amy - Blue was painted just after the singer's death in July 2011, and goes on display at the gallery today.

It's a typical work by the Amsterdam-based South African artist: close-cropped, commemorative, with details bleeding in and out of the shapes on show.

"Dumas’s liquid handling of paint carries tremendous emotive power," says Sarah Howgate, Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery. "The rich, translucent blues of this portrait allude to Amy Winehouse’s musical influences as much as to the melancholy details of her career."

Here's one of the curators giving her take on the piece:

Find out more at www.npg.org.uk

Last Updated 26 November 2012