23 November 2011

V&A at Dundee masterclass portraits to go on show

Event - 5pm, Friday November 25th
The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum
Masterclass portraits of Michael Marra on show

The results of the first V&A at Dundee Masterclass will go on show to the public this Friday evening.

The 'Portraits for the Future' masterclass is part of the events taking place around the exhibition 'Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration’ which is currently showing at the McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum.

Internationally renowned artist Professor Calum Colvin has been leading a group of professionals in the 3-day workshop, for which Michael Marra, the Scottish singer and songwriter, has been sitting as subject.

The workshop, hosted in the McManus’s Creative Learning Suite, has used the Cecil Beaton exhibition as a platform for debate and inspiration, examining how portraiture has been captured and developed since the original photographs were taken.

The masterclass is supported by Calumet, the UK’s leading supplier of digital photographic equipment, who are offering the rare opportunity to work with state-of-the-art Hasselblad digital technology, on loan for the duration of the masterclass.

The event is the first in an ongoing series of V&A at Dundee masterclasses concerned with design-led innovation.

Calum Colvin is Professor of Fine Art Photography at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, part of the University of Dundee. He has achieved international recognition for his innovative approach to portraiture over the last decade and he is acknowledged as a leader in his field of digital photography. Using the individual's heritage as a starting point for conceptualising imagery that tells their story, Calum builds a portrait using objects and perspective to give an image that embraces the individual’s unique personality.

'Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration' runs at The McManus until January 8th. Featuring images from the V&A’s Beaton archive, it shows The Queen in her roles as princess, monarch and mother.

It is the first in a series of partnership projects between The McManus and the V&A, as part of the pre-opening programme for the V&A at Dundee.

For more information on V&A at Dundee see www.vandaatdundee.com You can also follow the project on Facebook (www.facebook.com/VandAatDundee)and Twitter (@VADundee)

NOTES TO EDITORS

• The exhibition curator is Susanna Brown, Curator of Photographs at the V&A
• The V&A has the oldest museum photography collection in the world and holds the UK’s national collection of photography. The Cecil Beaton collection of royal portraits was bequeathed to the V&A in 1987. It includes 18,000 original prints, transparencies and negatives and 45 volumes of press cuttings.

Dundee exhibition
Friday September 30th to Sunday January 8th
The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum

Admission Free. Opening times: Mon to Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun 12.30 - 4.30pm.

Thursday late opening until 8pm - specially for the Beaton exhibition run.

Exhibition organised by the V&A, London in partnership with the V&A at Dundee. www.themcmanus-dundee.gov.uk.

V&A at Dundee
The V&A at Dundee is being delivered by Design Dundee Ltd, a ground-breaking partnership between the Victoria and Albert Museum - the world’s greatest museum of art and design - and Dundee City Council, the Universities of Dundee and Abertay Dundee, and Scottish Enterprise.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government announced it would provide total capital funding of £3.5 million in 2010/11 and 2011/12 towards the V&A project, with total revenue funding (to cover project running costs) of £1.28 million allocated in 2010/11 and 2011/12. The revenue funding supports staffing, marketing and fundraising for the project, and the development of what goes on inside the building - including the exhibitions that will run before the building is completed.

www.VandAatDundee.com.

Exhibition Publication
V&A Publishing has produced a hardback book to accompany the exhibition authored by Susanna Brown, with contributions from Sir Roy Strong and Mario Testino. For further press information about the book, contact Julie Chan on 020 7942 2701 or email j.chan@vam.ac.uk (not for publication).

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902