COLIN DAVIDSON AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

The National Portrait Gallery is open again. Packed with all the traditional content, giant royal family portraits from the seventeenth century, crowded paintings of eighteenth century landowners.But the new exhibition from Colin Davidson is the most moving I have seen . Paintings of people whose families died from bombing, assassination or execution during the. bitter years of conflict in Ireland which ended with the Good Friday Agreement, bring contemporary history into the realm of superb art.

Alongside each painting is a detailed account of the nature of their bereavement. The collective effect is extraordinary..

Here is an exhibition to remember, and a sign the new National Portrait Gallery is willing to engage in the lives of ordinary people and celebrate their bravery as the artist brilliantly examines their profound grief.

Colin Davidson is an artist for our times. The small exhibition is deeply sad but brings the suffering of everyday victims of war into the realm of compassion and strangely, hope.