The self-taught artist will present the portraits, which in
age of constant selfies on social media also look at where the
genre is headed, as part of a retrospective of his work in an
exhibition opening in Denmark next month.
"A lot of my work in the past has been about one painting of
someone and trying to get everything about them into one image,"
Yeo told Reuters in an interview. "It had been in the back of my
mind that it would be interesting to do the reverse and so
rather than do a series of single images of people, to do the
same subject over and over again."
In one of the paintings seen by Reuters, Delevingne, who has
carved out a successful career as the face of some of fashion's
biggest names, is holding a mirror to her face.
In another, the 23-year old, whose own Instagram pictures have
garnered a large following, is wearing goggles.
"(It's) alluding really to the fact that she's a performer and
playing with her own identity," Yeo said of the first work.
"It's a very interesting point in time and ... one way of
highlighting that was to use someone who's an actor, i.e. a
professional chameleon, who's used to changing their own
identity one day to another, one job to another."
Yeo taught himself to paint while recovering from Hodgkins
Lymphoma, which he developed while at university.
In his 25-year career, he has painted many famous faces
including actors Kevin Spacey, Nicole Kidman and Sienna Miller,
media mogul Rupert Murdoch, artist Damien Hirst, former British
prime minister Tony Blair and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.
Some of those works will also go on display at the Museum of
National History at Denmark's Frederiksborg Castle, Yeo's
biggest exhibition, leading up to his latest series of works.
"Jonathan Yeo Portraits" will run from March 20 to June 30.
(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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