Alexander Newley is a leading contemporary artist, writer and teacher known internationally for his iconic portrait paintings of major figures in the Arts including Gore Vidal, Billy Wilder, Christopher Reeve, Oliver Stone and Dame Judi Dench.

“I’m fascinated by the unknowable human self,” he says, “and how it variously disguises and hides itself behind the mask of personality.”

Working mainly in pastels and oils, and making a close study over many years of the Old Masters, he has evolved a technique and style that combines the best virtues of classical technique with the energy and edge of contemporary subject matter.

His portrait of Gore Vidal, America’s infamous polemicist and wit, and his dramatic triple-portrait of Actor, Activist and former star of Superman, Christopher Reeve, imprisoned in his life-supporting wheelchair, form part of the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery at The Smithsonian in Washington DC.

His full-length portrait of Sir Nigel Hawthorne in character as Mad King George III, was commissioned by the English National Theatre in 1993 for their production of Alan Bennett’s play “The Madness of George III”; and his portrait of writer, Dominick Dunne, passionately scribbling in his notebook during his coverage for Vanity Fair of the OJ Simpson trial in Los Angeles, was chosen for the cover of Dunne’s best-selling memoir about the trial, “Another City, Not My Own,” and went on to achieve widespread exposure all over America. In 2006, Newley’s portrait of Hawthorne in character as George III was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum for their permanent collection celebrating Theatre and the Performing Arts.

Other successes have included his mesmeric, multilayered “Head of Lincoln” which is now the central attraction at The Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln, Illinois—and his candid portrait of British novelist and ex-politician, Lord Jeffrey Archer, mischievously hiding his face behind his hands.

In 2017, he collaborated with the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company to produce theatrical portraits of leading actors in Branagh’s season of plays at the Garrick Theatre, including Dame Judi Dench, Sir Kenneth Branagh himself, and Sir Derek Jacobi.

In the same year, The Garrick Club commissioned his portrait of Sir David Suchet, giving it pride of place when the painting was subsequently hung in the club’s famous bar.

More recently, Quartet Books published Newley’s memoir of a Hollywood childhood, Unaccompanied Minor:--a candid look at the toxic world of Show Business through the eyes of a child, and a meditation on how trauma can be transformed into art and self-realisation. And in 2024 his art monograph, Divining The Human, which gathers together over 300 of his works and contains a narrative essay by the artist chronicling the different phases of his versatile career, was brought out by the Unicorn Publishing Group.

He has now, as an extension of his artistic practise, evolved into a philosopher and teacher on art, spirituality and creativity. Through his social media platforms and online presence he is a passionate advocate for the revitalisation of the moral and spiritual principle in Art.

“A new renaissance of hope and faith in the human project is at hand,” he says, “but first we must master the dragon of technology and ensure it serves our humanity. Only then can we throw off the prevailing pessimism of our culture and believe in ourselves again.”