PHOTO: Harley Weir
Charli xcx Brat-era portrait hung in National Portrait Gallery
A portrait of Charli xcx shot during the Brat era has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, the same week she is eyeing a fourth UK No 1 album with Music, Fashion, Film. The photograph, taken by Harley Weir in 2023, became one of the defining images of Charli’s ubiquitous lime-green phase and now hangs in the gallery’s History Makers Now space.
Brandei Estes, the gallery’s senior curator of photographs, said the institution was “delighted” with the acquisition, describing Charli as “one of the defining cultural figures of her generation”. Estes added that Weir “has developed a distinctive photographic language that combines intimacy with a powerful sense of presence”. The purchase was funded by a gift from the Bukhman Foundation, which champions breakthroughs in Type 1 Diabetes and the arts to create lasting change.
The History Makers Now area is dedicated to contemporary figures who are shaping culture and society. Charli joins other modern portraits such as Raye, Catherine, Princess of Wales, actor Naomi Ackie, queer activist and advocate Lady Phyll, Marcus Rashford, Andy Murray, and King Charles III.
The news comes a few days after the release of Music, Fashion, Film, which received Pitchfork's Best New Music distinction, a 9/10 from us, and rave reviews from almost every other outlet bar a few right-leaning newspapers.
Over the weekend, Charli followed up the barely-born album with three B-sides, each with their own black-and-white music videos: "I Keep on Thinking Bout You Every Single Day and Night", "Playboy Bunny", and "If You Take Away the Music Then What Has She Got?". They were released exclusively on iTunes. Writing on Instagram, she explained, “I felt adamant I wouldn’t put them on streaming because it sort of felt counterintuitive to the whole ethos of those songs, but I know you all really wanted them so I’ve begrudgingly put them on iTunes lol.”
After playing herself in the pop mockumentary The Moment, Charli has already lined up more film work: Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, the comedy thriller The Gallerest, a remake of the 1978 horror Faces of Death, and an as-yet-untitled project with Japanese director Takashi Miike, which she is starring in and producing.
Before that, Charli will headline Reading and Leeds festival, then cross to North America for a tour in September and October.
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