Humphrey Ocean: A handbook of modern life opens at the National Portrait Gallery in London

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Tim by Humphrey Ocean, 2010. ©Humphrey Ocean. LONDON.- On 23rd November, a display of works by British artist Humphrey Ocean opened at the National Portrait Gallery. The display contains 40 works painted in gouache on paper comprising colourful portraits of visitors to his south London studio, produced since 2006. The sitters include family members and friends. Humphrey Ocean RA has a long association with the National Portrait Gallery, which began in 1982 when he won the Gallery’s annual Portrait Prize with the painting Lord Volvo and his Estate. Ocean has undertaken several commissions for the Gallery including portraits of Paul McCartney (1982), the poet Philip Larkin (1984) and Tony Benn (1996). In The Painter’s Eye at the National Portrait Gallery in 1999, Humphrey Ocean and film-maker John Tchalenko, with whom he has often collaborated, exhibited work from their Wellcome Trust Art and Science project. For the final room of the exhibition Ocean borrowed port ... More