National Portrait Gallery reveals its programme of major exhibitions and partnerships for 2025
The National Portrait Gallery announces its forward programme of exhibitions for 2025, featuring a varied programme of anticipated shows. The Face Magazine: Culture Shift and Edvard Munch Portraits will be the first exhibitions of the year, opening in February and March 2025. Summer at the Gallery will be dominated by contemporary painted portraiture, with Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting and the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award taking centre stage. The latter part of the year will focus on 20th and 21st Century photography, with Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World and the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize headlining across autumn and winter.
Spring 2025
The Face Magazine: Culture Shift: 20 February - 18 May 2025
Celebrating iconic fashion images and portraits from The Face, a trail-blazing youth culture and style magazine that has shaped the creative and cultural landscape in Britain and beyond.
Edvard Munch Portraits : 13 March – 15 June 2025
The first exhibition in the UK to focus exclusively on this important but sometimes overlooked aspect of the artist’s oeuvre.
Summer 2025
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting: 20 June - 7 September 2025
The first major museum exhibition in the UK dedicated to the work of one of the world’s foremost contemporary artists. Bringing together 50 works made throughout the artist’s career, Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting will trace the development of her practice from the 1990s to today, spotlighting key artworks from her career and while exploring her lasting connection to art history
Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award: 10 July - 12 October 2025
A prestigious painting competition that celebrates the very best in contemporary portraiture. 2025’s exhibition will display captivating works from around the world, by both self-taught and more established painters, that provide a snapshot of portrait painting today.
Autumn 2025
Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World: 9 October 2025 - 11 January 2026
Showcasing Beaton at his most triumphant – from the Jazz Age and the Bright Young Things, to the high fashion brilliance of the Fifties and the glittering, Oscar-winning success of My Fair Lady.
Winter 2025
Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize: 13 November 2025 - 8 February 2026
Showcasing the work of talented young photographers, gifted amateurs and established professionals in the very best of contemporary photography.
Further Information:
Open daily: 10.30 – 18.00; Friday & Saturday: 10.30 – 21.00
National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE
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Image: L-R: Drift by Jenny Saville, 2020-2022, Oil and oil stick on canvas, 39 3/8 x 47 1/4 inches, 100 x 120 cm © Jenny Saville, Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd., Courtesy Gagosian; Reverse by Jenny Saville, 2002-2003, Oil on canvas, 84 x 96 inches, 213.4 x 243 cm © Jenny Saville, Courtesy Gagosian.