BP Portrait Award 2019

Total prize fund of £74,000

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After 30 years of sponsorship the BP Portrait Award still remains the most prestigious portrait painting competition in the world and represents the very best in contemporary practice.

The BP Portrait Award 2019 exhibition will run at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 June to 20 October 2019. In its fortieth year at the National Portrait Gallery and thirtieth year of sponsorship by BP it continues to be an unmissable highlight of the annual art calendar.

Prizes:

With a first prize of £35,000, and a total prize fund of £74,000, the Award is aimed at encouraging artists to focus upon and develop portraiture in their work.

First Prize: A cash award of £35,000, plus, at the judges’ discretion, a commission worth £7,000, to be agreed between the National Portrait Gallery and the artist.

Second Prize: £12,000

Third Prize: £10,000

BP Young Artist Award: £9,000

All selected artists aged between 18 and 30 will automatically be considered for both the BP Young Artist Award and the BP Portrait Award, but an individual cannot win both. If there are no exhibitors aged 30 or under then no Young Artist Award will be given and the funds so available shall be used to offer a Fourth Prize.

BP Travel Award 2019: £8,000

All selected artists will be eligible to submit a proposal for the BP Travel Award. The aim of the Award is to provide the opportunity for an artist to experience working in a different environment, in Britain or abroad, on a project related to portraiture which will then be shown as part of the BP Portrait Award 2020 exhibition and tour in 2020 – 21.

Eligibility:

The competition is open to everyone aged 18 and over.

Copyrights & Usage Rights:

The copyright for all works exhibited in the BP Portrait Award and Travel Award will remain the property of the artist, but it is a condition of entry that the artist or their representatives agree unconditionally that the National Portrait Gallery may reproduce any exhibited works, free of charge, for the purposes of marketing, promotion, merchandise, discussion and education in direct connection with the BP Portrait Award and Travel Award exhibition and tour, in all media worldwide including the exhibition catalogue and subsequent publications, posters, prints, postcards, the internet and within television documentaries, and may license these specific, limited rights to others only for the same purposes. The Gallery also reserves the right to reproduce selected images free of charge for core non-commercial purposes, for example in the Past Exhibitions page of the Gallery website, indefinitely, as a public record.

Theme:

Portrait People