Alan Cumming Portrait Unveiled
It’s not to my taste, but as Ethel Merman said after watching “Torch Song Trilogy”: “Everybody else liked it so what the hell do I know?” I’m referring to: ‘A portrait of actor Alan Cumming is to be unveiled at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The 49-year-old, who was awarded an OBE in 2009 for his services to entertainment and his role as an LGBT campaigner, is one of Scotland’s leading actors with roles ranging from ‘Taggart’ and ‘The Good Wife’ on television, to the X-Men films and ‘Cabaret’ and ‘Macbeth’ on stage. The portrait by Christian Hook is the winning commission for the Sky Arts portrait artist of the year 2014 competition. The artist, who is from Gibraltar where he teaches the subject, painted Cumming in his home city of New York, depicting him on stage surrounded by footlights. In a nod to Cummings’ celebrated Broadway performance in ‘Cabaret,’ a top hat sits beside him, while the actor’s Scottish heritage is emphasized in a kilt draped around his neck.
