This is in Room 15, the Modern Art section, complete with a single comfy chair so you can watch the hour-long video in comfort, I don’t know how long its there for. Will pay a visit soon, he looks more active here than he did last time I saw him on a football pitch.
DAVID BY SAM TAYLOR-WOOD
David Beckham portrait goes on display at the Liverpool Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is hosting a stunning video portrait of one of England’s favourite footballers by artist Sam Taylor-Wood. On loan from the National Portrait Gallery in London, the artwork went on display from Saturday 9 December 2006.
Shot in a single long take, David is an intimate portrait of the footballer sleeping following a training session in Madrid. Simply lit from one light source the film presents a reverential and vulnerable image of this international football icon.
Born in Leytonstone, East London, in 1975, David Beckham had scored over 100 goals for his childhood team, Ridgeway Wanderers, by the age of eight. In 1991 he signed to play for Manchester United and made his first-team debut four years later. Beckham was named “Young Player of the Year” in the 1996/7 season and won his first England Cap in September 1997. In 1999 he helped Manchester United win the “Treble”, playing some of the best football of his career. Beckham was appointed England captain in 2000 and led England to a memorable 5-1 victory over Germany in the 2002 World Cup qualifying round. In July 2003, Beckham left Manchester United to play for Real Madrid. Following the England’s quarter-final exit at the World Cup in Germany earlier this year, Beckham stood down as captain.
Sam Taylor-Wood (b.1967) graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1990. Her work in photography and film has won her much international critical acclaim, including the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the Venice Biennale (1997) and a Turner Prize nomination (1998). Taylor-Wood is at the forefront of the new generation of contemporary British art. Since her first solo exhibition at White Cube in 1995, she has had numerous solo exhibitions, including being the youngest artist ever to be granted a solo exhibition at The Hayward Gallery.
Ann Bukantas, Curator of Fine Art at the Walker Art Gallery said: “We are very excited that we are able to bring David to a new audience in Liverpool. Sam Taylor-Wood offers a different and surprising view of a much-photographed celebrity and visitors will be intrigued by it.’
Sam Taylor-Wood said: “Making a portrait of a much-photographed man like David Beckham was a challenge. I wanted to create a direct, closely observed study. Filming while he was asleep produces a different view from the many familiar, public images”.