Peyton's Place(s):Elizabeth Peyton @ the NPG.

"Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgement that yourself arise.
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes'. - Sonnet 55, William Shakespeare, 1609.

"No one is famous when they wake up in the morning, so it's nice seeing people in moments when they're just being themselves" - Elizabeth Peyton.

"Well, I've been in town for just about fifteen minutes now and, baby, I feel so down and I don't know why. I keep walking for miles" - Last Nite, The Strokes.

Julian (2004) 

Elizabeth Peyton's Aires and Angels which finished its run at the National Portrait Gallery in London earlier this year was an extensive, somewhat convoluted, and occasionally hard to find, mix of rock stars, romantic poets, actors, artists, royalty, rappers, and French revolutionary statesmen. I was unsure what, bar Peyton's personal interest, connected them all but there were certainly, among them, some very pleasing portraits.

Which is what you'd hope for at the National Portrait Gallery of course. The brief, as much as there was one, is that Peyton's portraiture (painted over the last three decades) had been slid in among the Victorian and Tudor portraits of nobles and notables (who, in most cases, have been all but forgotten now) with, one assumes, the intention of showing that the times we live in now are as important as the times that came before us.

Dan Kjaer Nielsen (2016)

Napoleon (1991)

Which of course they are. Not least to those of us who are actually living through them. There's a few outliers from the past, like Napoleon (looking all dishy and moody, above), but for the most part it's a roll call of the last two or three generations of pop culture that, sometimes, leans a little bit too heavy on the Britpop and Loaded nineties.

Dan Kjaer Nielsen of Danish punk outfit Iceage is a more surprising addition than The Strokes' Julian Casablancas, that's for sure. German operatic tenor Jonas Kaufmann's here with Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais in Puccini's 1884 opera Manon Lescaut and drawn by Peyton in a sketchy paean to impressionism that, frankly, underwhelms.

Live to Ride (E.P.) (2003)

Love (I) (Jonas Kaufmann and Kristine Opolais;Manon Lescaut) #2 (2015)

Flowers and Diaghilev (2008)

Eugene Delacroix 1842 (2005)

The rendering of pensive and handsome French romantic artist Eugene Delacroix and Jeanne Moreau in 1968's The Bride Wore Black (with director Truffaut) are both far more agreeable. The thicker application of paint gives more definition to their faces and their off guard expressions capture something of the duality of the celebrity lifestyle. Ambivalence even. It's there again with Peyton's portrait of New York artist Jonathan Horowitz staring intently out to space in a fetching salmon jumper and in the double portrait of Daniel Day-Lewis and, I think, Michelle Pfeiffer in Scorsese's 1993 The Age of Innocence.

Jeanne Moreau and Francois Truffaut (The Bride Wore Black) (2005)

Jonathan (Jonathan Horowitz) (2007-2009)

The Age of Innocence (2007)

After Giorgione (2011)

Irises and Klara Commerce St. (2012)

Garden of Preserving Harmony (Kristian) (2016)

Two women (after Courbet) (2016)

Dark Incandescence (Kristian) (2014)

Elio, Oliver (Call me by Your Name) (2018)

Further art historical figures crop up. Giorgione! Courbet! Ooh look, there's a scene from Luca Guadagnino's wonderful 2017 Call Me By Your Name and, now, here's Kurt Cobain with redder hair than I remember him ever having had.

It gets a bit like that. Not only did I find myself traipsing amicably around the gallery spaces trying to spot the Peyton works I found I was trying to spot people I recognise. I wasn't so much thinking about Peyton's art as her subjects. Which, possibly, is how she wants it. Maybe that's a success of some sorts. To make people think about the subject rather than the painter. But I couldn't help thinking it was all getting a bit celeb spotting. Even if it was in those "moments when they're just being themselves".

Alizarin Kurt (1995)

Jarvis (1996)

Keith (From Gimme Shelter) (2004)

Blue Liam (1996)

It made me think the nature of celebrity isn't something that the celebrity carries with them (except in the case of someone like Elton John) but something we bring with us. It's our baggage. Imagine blue eyed red lipped Liam Gallagher walking down a street in China or North Korea. He'd be recognised as a foreigner far more than he would the former singer of Oasis. 

You're only a celebrity if the person you're standing in front of knows you're a celebrity. If not, you're just another person. Which is what you are anyway and what Peyton is trying to show. But I'm not sure this series of portraits sheds any more light on the nature of celebrity than a pithy comment I read in an interview with Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses and Belly once. She posited the idea that if celebrity was natural there would be cats so famous that every other cat in the world knows who they are.

David Hockney, Powis Terrace Bedroom (1998)

Prince Eagle (Fontainebleau) (1999)

Portrait at the Opera (Elizabeth) Self-portrait (2016)

Isa Genzken, 1980 (2010)

Tyler, the Creator (2019)

The Internet has certainly made a few cats famous - but mostly to us humans. Not other cats! Peyton's portraits of Keith Richards, Jarvis Cocker, Isa Genzken, David Hockney, and even a chalky Tyler, the Creator are good. They're well made, mostly they're instantly recognisable, and they do as she's hoped and catch people during moments of downtime and reflection.

But none of them really blow my mind. Former Lazio, Juventus, and Italy striker Pierluigi Casiraghi seemed to me an unusual inclusion in the show but further investigation revealed Pierre Casiraghi to be a different person entirely. He's the grandson of Grace Kelly and Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and, thus, about as 'society' as you get.

I'm not interested in succession, inherited wealth, or celebrity particularly so a portrait of this guy could hardly be less interesting to me. Talent, history, and art however are subjects I like so the likes of Frida Kahlo and a nod to Michelangelo held my attention much longer.

Pierre Casiraghi, August 2019 (2019)

After Michelangelo, (1532) (2017)

Sieglinde + Siegmund, DIE WALKURE (Eva-Maria Westbroek + Jonas Kaufmann) (2011-2012)

Twilight (2009)

Frida (Frida Kahlo) (2005)

But, Kahlo aside - possibly for obvious reasons, not that long. For the most part these were charming sketches and they were clearly painted with a lot of love and are certainly way better than anything I could do. But, with a few exceptions (Kahlo, Genzken, Hockney, Horowitz), they didn't speak to me much louder than a Parisian street artist's work would do. 

It was, often, a case of "yes, that's nice. What's next?" which, for me, isn't quite enough (even with a free exhibition) for such an august establishment. Oddly enough, for one who believes in the abolition of the monarchy, one of the best pieces of all was of a young Queen, then Princess, Elizabeth II making her first ever radio address a long time ago.

Perhaps because the Queen is SO famous, and was born famous, to see her looking casual and relaxed rather than wearing a fucking crown on her head (I've said it before and I'll say it again - hats are for keeping your head warm and dry - one with a big hole in the middle of it is a really really shit hat) rather took me aback. I suspect Elizabeth Peyton intended for all her works to have this affect but, alas, for me, they did not. I came, I ogled some Mexican tits and a young princess who's now a queen, and then I left. I always thought celebrities were just people anyway so I suppose an exhibition that sought to tell me that was preaching to the converted. Oh well. It was nice to get out the flat.

Princess Elizabeth's First Radio Address (1993)

Matthew (2008)