Overview
- The National Portrait Gallery has acquired Harley Weir’s 2024 photograph of Charli XCX and put it on display in the History Makers space, Room 33.
- The portrait was purchased through the gallery’s Collecting the Now fund, which has been supported by a £1 million gift from the Bukhman Foundation.
- Brandei Estes, the gallery’s senior curator of photographs, praised Weir’s intimate photographic language and said the work captures a defining cultural figure of her generation.
- The announcement coincides with Charli XCX’s July 24 album release Music, Fashion, Film, which coverage says is receiving strong commercial support.
- The acquisition highlights how museum buying, private philanthropy and contemporary photography shape which living artists enter public cultural memory and could boost Charli XCX’s wider recognition across music, fashion and film.