Photographs of Dennis Hopper and an unseen image of Joe Strummer are to be included in a new exhibition at the National Portrait gallery focusing on the work of William Eggleston.
This will be the first museum exhibition to concentrate on the portraits of the pioneering American photographer William Eggleston.
Opening on the 21st July, the new display will feature over 100 works by the artist – who is renowned for vivid and mysterious images of people in places such as petrol stations and phone booths.
Eggleston is also widely credited for increasing recognition for colour photography, through the use of his own dye-transfer technique and this exhibition will offer visitors a retrospective of his full career.
The last exhibition of Eggleston’s photographs took place in London in 2002, this exhibition is also the most comprehensive of his portrait work. Many of the images included will feature friends, family, musicians and actors.
Highlights of the display will include monumental, five foot wide prints of the legendary photographs of the artist’s uncle, Adyn Schuyler Senior, with his assistant Jasper Staples in Cassidy Bayou, Mississippi and Devoe Money in Jackson, Mississippi from the landmark book Eggleston’s Guide (1976).
Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, says: “William Eggleston makes memorable photographic portraits of individuals – including friends and family, musicians and artists – that are utterly unique and highly influential. More than this, Eggleston has an uncanny ability to find something extraordinary in the seemingly everyday.”
Curator Phillip Prodger, Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery says:”Few photographers alive today have had such a profound influence on the way photographs are made and seen as William Eggleston. His pictures are as fresh and exciting as they were when they first grabbed the public’s attention in the 1970s.”
William Eggleston Portraits will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery from the 21st July to the 23rd October 2016.