Pop Art Portraits

Status: 2007
Location: St Martin's Place, London

Client: National Portrait Gallery
Value: Confidential

 

The exhibition comprised 52 major works by 28 British and American artists, and included both film and sculpture. Accommodating a blockbuster of this scale at the National Portrait Gallery demanded not only the use of the temporary exhibition space, but also a number of galleries which house the permanent collections.

Working closely with the curator, Paul Moorhouse, Stanton Williams have manipulated existing spaces to generate an intelligent order, rhythm and unity to the suite of galleries which host this exhibition.

A particular challenge for Stanton Williams was to find a way to unite the temporary exhibition hall with additional permanent galleries required. These areas are usually separated by a public entrance hall and shop. Stanton Williams’ bold solution included limiting the use of the public entrance hall from Orange street and relocating the exhibition shop.

This new space, once a potential ‘commercial break’ in the heart of the exhibition, stitched together the suite of galleries and forms a valuable exhibition area and a key space to show film.

Working in harmony with the existing architecture, the Stanton Williams scheme introduced elements that created physical and visual links between the exhibition spaces; a powerful monochrome scheme coloured only by the works themselves.

One of the highlights of Pop Art Portraits was the section dedicated to Marilyn Monroe that brought together works by British and American Pop artists. A ‘chapel’ was created to reunite several of these important works originally shown in New York in 1967.

 

Credits
Photography: Morley von Sternberg