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NAIDOC Portraits

Celebrate NAIDOC: Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud and First Nations portraiture in these live National Portrait Gallery programs for primary students. Bookings via DART.

Announcing... Ralph Heimans: Portraiture. Power. Influence.

In March 2024, the National Portrait Gallery will launch a major exhibition of the work of Ralph Heimans AM, the Australian artist who’s painted some of the world’s most recognisable people.

Terms and conditions

Terms and conditions

These terms and conditions govern entries to the National Portrait Gallery’s Darling Portrait Prize 2024.

Privacy Impact Assessment Register

The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is required by section 15 of the Privacy (Australian Government Agencies – Governance) APP Code 2017 to maintain and publish a register of the Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) that it conducts on its website.

Where we fit: social policy context

There are a wide range of legislative requirements and strategies which have influenced the development of this DIAP.

Disability in Australia

The Gallery subscribes to the social model of disability that distinctively signals the difference between a person’s individual condition or impairment, and the barriers they experience which are created by the environment and society around them.

Onsite visit bookings

For in person visits, make an educational booking here through our bookcanberraexcursions.com.au portal.

Some women you may not know

‘Everybody’s lives are built by so many influences, and for me, it is writers, artists and activists who have influenced how I think about the world.’

Announcing... Portrait23: Identity

In this major new exhibition marking the National Portrait Gallery’s third decade, 23 Australian artists and collectives have been invited to create portraits without constraints or boundaries.

2022 Annual Appeal

In 2022 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Mayatjara by Robert Fielding, a series of 24 photographs of Elders of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara community.

2021 Annual Appeal

In 2021 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Peter Brew-Bevan's portraits of athletes Turia Pitt, Leisel Jones OAM and Ellie Cole OAM.

Favourite portraits

National Portrait Gallery staff introduce their favourite portraits from the exhibition.

Selected images

Take a peek at a selection of the portraits you can see in the exhibition.

2020 Annual Appeal

In 2020 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Sally Robinson's remarkable portrait of author Tim Winton.

Announcing.... In their own words

Inspiring Australians tell their own stories in a unique new gallery audio tour, developed in collaboration with the National Library of Australia.

Annual Appeal

Hearts and craft

The long game

Maritime disaster leaves poignant picture

Absence rends the heart asunder

A charming prospect

Family fortunes

Memories

The second row of paintings recall stories relating to specific sites, experiences and activities.

Some prime ministers

Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

Exploring select works from the NPPP 2018. For teachers of primary and secondary Visual Arts.

Seduce, Amuse, Entertain

Michael Desmond, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2007 Prize.

Li Cunxin, 2017–2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2018

Portrait Donors

Supporters

2015-17 Acquisition Fund

From 2015 to 2017 the Acquisition Fund was focussed on Reg Richardson AM by Mitch Cairns, a finalist in the Archibald Prize 2014, and a great example of minimalist portraiture.

2014-15 Acquisition Fund

Kristin Headlam's portrait of Chris Wallace-Crabbe was acquired with the support of the Circle of Friends in 2014.

2013-14 Acquisition Fund

This 1910 portrait of Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie) Roberts by Tom Roberts was brought into the Gallery's collection with the assistance of the Acquisition Fund in 2013.

2012-13 Acquisition Fund

The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.

Noel McKenna

It’s a matter beyond dispute that in the entire history of Australian art, it’s Noel McKenna who’s painted the liveliest rendition of the head of a Chihuahua.

Shen Jiawei

Shen Jiawei was born in China. During the Cultural Revolution he laboured in the Great Northern Wilderness, but even as he worked there, he gained recognition as an artist. 

Children of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2016

Senses, movement and imagination in portraits of children from the 2016 Prize. For Year 1 - 3 students.

Resilience

Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Neville Bonner, Lowitja O'Donoghue, Mandawuy Yunupingu and Adam Goodes

Awesome Achievers

What makes someone awesome? And how does a portrait tell a person's story? Bring your students up close and personal with some great Australians. For upper primary school students.

Statement from Mr Angus Trumble

Today, Mr Angus Trumble, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, expanded on his reasons for removing the photographic portrait of Indonesian President Joko Widodo from exhibition.

Virtual Excursions

Live, interactive learning programs coming soon wherever you are.

Look Within: Self-Portraiture

Self-portraits are among the most direct yet intriguing works created by artists for analysis and self-expression. As both subject and creator, the artist is represented entirely in their own terms. For primary students.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.

Mortality

In Western religious art a Pietà, also called a ‘lamentation’, is an image of the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Christ.

Honour board

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges and thanks all its supporters.

Portrait of a nation

Explore portraits of those who had a Canberra suburb or street named after them. For primary students.

Architecture

Natural light and human proportions – the design by Johnson Pilton Walker

History

How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be

Everybody, look serious

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2014 Prize.

Louise Whelan

I met Kaloti Parmjit the day I took the photo. I first visited the Sikh temple in the suburb of Glenwood to take photos as part of a social documentary project I'm undertaking for the State Library of NSW.

Elegance in Exile

Taking a selection of works from our 2012 exhibition Elegance in Exile: Portrait drawing from colonial Australia, this resource aims to introduce the lives of subjects and artists, provide an insight into colonial times in Australia, encourage close examination of portraits and explore how portraits can be used as primary historical documents. For primary students.

Portrait School

Here’s where your students will discover Australia’s most creative and innovative thinkers and achievers.

Chinese Art

A short overview of modern Chinese art from 1949 to the present.

The 1780s to the 1840s

Eighteenth century men differed from those of the preceding centuries in their preference for beardlessness.

Inner Worlds and psychoanalysis

Inner Worlds evokes a broad view of psychology as a discipline. However, the specific interests of the practitioners whose portraits are included in the exhibition incorporate specialist areas including psychoanalysis.

Less than six degrees of separation

Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.

Faces of war

Lesley Harding, Curator, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne explores Albert Tucker’s experience of World War II, his interests in the intersection between psychology and creativity, and their influence on his portrait making.

The art of Inner Worlds

Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.

Melati Suryodarmo

Born in Surakarta (Solo), Indonesia in 1969, Melati Suryodarmo’s first degree was in international relations.

Herra Pahlasari

At the time of Herra Pahlasari’s birth in 1978, her academic parents were living in Canberra.

Alwar Balasubramaniam

Born in 1971 in Tamil Nadu, Southern India, Alwar Balasubramaniam's sculptures, prints and installations challenge our perceptions while creating forms for the invisible and the intangible.