Dame Zaha Hadid, 2008

Sometimes referred to as ‘Queen of the curve’, Iraqi-British architect Dame Zaha Hadid (1950–2016) was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2004), the world’s highest architectural honour. Characterised by bold, visionary forms, her buildings can be seen all over the world. Among her most renowned projects are the London Aquatics Centre (built for the 2012 Olympic Games), the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, and the Guangzhou Opera House, China. Winner of the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011, in 2016 she became the first individual female recipient of the Royal Gold Medal, awarded annually by the RIBA since 1848.

This portrait by British conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin consists of a LCD monitor that hangs on a wall like a painting and displays a line drawing of Hadid wearing an Issey Miyake jacket. While the linear drawing is fixed, the intense colours in the portrait and its background slowly but constantly change in a random sequence controlled by computer software. There are so many variables that no one will ever see precisely the same image twice.

National Portrait Gallery, London Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery; made possible by J.P. Morgan through the Fund for New Commissions, 2008
© National Portrait Gallery, London