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Gallery seeks £200k for 'blood head'

03/10/2008

London's National Portrait Gallery is asking for donations as it bids to acquire one of the most enduring images of the Brit Art movement – Marc Quinn's Self.

The work, otherwise known as 'blood head', is a self portrait entirely made from Quinn's own blood and frozen.

Self – the fourth cast in the series – would be the only version to join a British public collection if the National Portrait Gallery can raise the required £350,000.

Independent art charity the Art Fund has already donated £100,000, while the gallery has submitted half that from its own resources.

The National Portrait Gallery said this cast of Self, made in 2006, was "unconventional, innovative and challenging".

The gallery wants the work to be the central piece in its contemporary collection.

"Marc Quinn's Self is a work of international significance - a brilliant and poignant extension to the genre of self-portraiture," commented Sandy Nairne, the gallery's director.

David Barrier, the director of the Art Fund added that Quinn had been at the forefront of the Young British Artists.

"Self confirmed Marc Quinn's reputation as one of the most innovative artists of his generation," he said.

"This extraordinary self-portrait belongs in the National Portrait Gallery's collection, and I hope that others will follow our lead in showing their support for this powerful work."