The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London, England, is facing accusations of nepotism over a current exhibition by makeup artist turned photographer Zoë Law – a large donor to the gallery's recent makeover that cost in excess of £40 million (approximately $49 million / AU$78.5 million).
The exhibition, Zoë Law: Legends, features images picked from over 100 portraits that Law has taken over the last decade, including the likes of Sienna Miller, Kim Cattrall and Orlando Bloom. The NPG is also purchasing her portrait of Noel Gallagher for its permanent collection.
Law was previously married to Andrew Law, the Caxton hedge fund manager described by the Financial Times as the "unassuming master of the universe” – and also a huge donor to the Conservative party. The prior couple's trust, the Law Family Charitable Foundation, is listed as a key donor toward the NPG’s £41.2 million refurbishment.
Zoë Law – who also previously headed the group that organized the Black and White Ball Conservative party fundraiser in 2015 – resigned as a trustee in June last year amid their divorce.
Members of the NPG’s board include two Conservative party figures, including the former secretary of state for justice Chris Grayling and David Ross, the multimillionaire Tory party donor and friend of Boris Johnson.
The Guardian reports that, after it published its article on this subject, the NPG got in touch to confirm that although the decision to display Law’s work was not brought before the institution’s ethics committee, the gallery said that the committee was informed.
Law described her exhibition as “a lasting legacy that all portrait photographers and artists dream of.” However, prominent cultural figures expressed their surprise at the high-profile exhibit of “pedestrian” work – calling the exhibition “difficult to defend” and “obviously unethical” according to The Guardian.
The Guardian added that Jesse Darling, who won the Turner Prize in 2023, said: “It just makes plain what was always the case, no? Art is a rich man’s game made up of rich hobbyists who keep their money circulating among themselves.”
Ironically, an Instagram video posted yesterday, shows a clip of a promotional film that has been made by Law exploring what it takes to make someone a legend.
In the clip, Lemn Sissay OBE, playwright, broadcaster and author says:
"I refuse to subscribe to the idea that I am less of a person if I have less money, and that anybody is less, because they have less."
A Turner Prize-nominated artist, commenting anonymously to The Guardian, said: “That show had a lot of publicity around it for basically an unknown practitioner so it looked a bit odd… the work is pedestrian at best. A lot of photography is about access, which she had, but that was it. It’s a nepotism thing clearly and would be difficult to defend otherwise.
“It is interesting in that it brings up the fundamental question of what is the NPG for? Is it a gallery just for and about celebrity? It shouldn’t be.”
Law's exhibition will be showing until March 02 2025. The National Portrait Gallery has been contacted for comment.
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