Royal Windrush Portraits Show at National Portrait Gallery
Portraits by Sonia Boyce, and Honor Titus are among those commissioned by King Charles III to honour important figures of the Windrush generation.
Chloe Cox, Alford Gardner (2023). Courtesy the artist and the Royal Collection Trust. Photo: Royal Collection Trust.
London's National Portrait Gallery is presenting ten portraits from the Royal Collection as a part of the exhibition Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation.
The show, which runs from 9 October 2023 to 1 April 2024, is part of a programme marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush at the port of Tilbury in Essex.
The portraits—painted by artists including Derek Fordjour, Serge Attukwei Clottey, and Amy Sherald—were commissioned by King Charles III in 2022 when he was the Prince of Wales.
The artists were chosen by the monarch to paint portraits of ten esteemed figures of the generation of Caribbean migrants who answered the British government's call to come and rebuild the nation after the Second World War, between 1948 and 1971.
In the foreword to a book published to accompany the unveiling of the commissioned works earlier this year, the King wrote: 'It is, I believe, crucially important that we should truly see and hear these pioneers.'
Among the sitters—most of whom are over 90—are Delisser Bernard (painted by Honor Titus), Royal Air Force veteran and father of Olympic sprint champion Verona Elder; and St Lucia émigré and prominent community campaigner Jessie Stephens MBE (painted by Sahara Longe).
Pioneering British botanist and scientist Professor Sir Godfrey (Geoff) Palmer OBE, who was Scotland's first Black university professor and a catalyst for innovation in the British brewing industry, was painted by Fordjour.
Golden Lion-winner Sonia Boyce OBE painted actress Carmen Munroe OBE, who co-founded Black theatre company Talawa and for decades has nurtured African and Caribbean diasporic talent.
Other figures depicted in the portraits include Linda Haye OBE (painted by Shannon Bono), the first woman of colour to become a full-time member of the Police Complaints Authority; and 40-year employee of British Rail, John (Big John) Richards (painted by Deanio X).
Other Windrush stories have found the spotlight in various U.K. cultural programmes this year. Babarba Walker has been nominated for the Turner Prize for her presentation at Sharjah Biennial 15, which examined the impact of the 2018 Windrush scandal that deprived numerous Windrush families of their right to stay in the U.K.
Frank Bowling's Arrival (2023)—a work marking 70 years since the Windrush-generation abstractionist's first arrival in the U.K.— screened at Piccadilly Circus in June.—[O]
