Awkward Times for the Awarding of the BP Portrait Prize

A bit of tragic awkwardness at London’s National Portrait Gallery recently. The annual BP Portrait Prize was awarded this week at the museum to painter Daphne Todd for her piece, “Last Portrait of Mother,” wherein she depicts her mother in bed after she had just recently died. While her work is hauntingly beautiful and seems entirely worthy of the prize, it’s a rough time to be attached to the oil giant BP right now. There were