Selected Works, 1985 to Present
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Information Self-Portrait2019 Conte on paper16 × 20" A contemplative conte drawing in which the artist wrestles with his identity in the digital age, tracing the impact of the information overload on the inner life.
Palace of Westminster2019 Oil and acrylic on canvas40 × 28" The night sky, crammed with haywire jet trails, forebodes an approaching short circuit in the world's energy. A vivid commentary on political turbulence and the fragility of great institutions.
Dame Judi Sketch2016 Conte and pastel on paper16 × 20" Made during a sitting with Dame Judi Dench, who immediately put the artist at ease with her graciousness and impish wit. A spontaneous and deeply felt portrait study in conte and pastel.
Head of Christopher Reeves2004Oil on canvas20 × 20"A powerful head study of the actor and activist Christopher Reeve — part of Newley's dramatic triple portrait now in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery at The Smithsonian in Washington DC.
Joan Collins1993Acrylic on Canvas24 × 36"Dame Joan Collins OBE — one of Newley's most celebrated early portraits, establishing his reputation for capturing the charisma and presence of the great figures of stage and screen.
Jeffrey Archer2015 Oil on canvas18 × 18" 'This is my wife Mary's favourite picture of me and hangs in her study at our home in Mallorca. Alexander is, without question, one of our great portraitists, and deserves all the recognition and success he's had.' Lord Jeffrey Archer
Head of Oliver Stone1996 Oil on canvas20 × 20" Newley met Stone at a cocktail party at producer Ray Stark's house in Hollywood, and Stone subsequently sat for the artist after admiring his portrait of Billy Wilder. A vivid study of one of America's most provocative and politically charged directors.
Self-Portrait as Leonardo's Warrior2009Oil on linen30 × 40"Suited up as a Renaissance knight, Newley merges the classical and contemporary — armoured in readiness to answer a higher call. One of the most powerful images in his ongoing series of self-portraits as mythological hero.
The Maskseller2009Oil on linen26 × 40"A richly symbolic oil depicting a seller of masks, exploring the themes of persona, identity and the many faces we present to the world. The Venetian tradition of the mask becomes a lens through which to examine the unknowable human self.
Boy At A Window 2008 Oil on canvas36 × 44" Based on Newley's actual memory of standing at a window aged four, feeling the space inside and outside his body — a majestic space that had no limits. A rite of passage both exhilarating and frightening.
Self Portrait With Happy Family 2008Oil on linen36 × 44" The viewer is invited to look across the ancient river-of-time divide and embrace the quietly contemplating witness in the background. The beautiful dream in the foreground is about to fade, but perhaps the magic of art can hold it forever.
Ed Ruscha2008Oil on linen30 × 40"A pioneer of American pop art, Ruscha has ranged freely across painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. Newley captured him in a mood of intense concentration at his cavernous studio in Culver City, California.
SP With Myself As A Child2008Oil on linen32 × 42"The result of thinking about classic self-portraiture and how it could be enriched by the discoveries of psychoanalysis — specifically the inner child, that crucible of emotions and patterns that conditions a person throughout their life.
Annette Tapert2006Pastel and conte on paper8 × 10"A small pastel and conté portrait of the charismatic writer on interior design and fashion, captured in her New York penthouse on a crisp autumn day as her gaze soared out dreamily over Central Park.
Temptation of St. Anthony2005Oil on linen48 × 66"Our hero lies prone on a bed of snarling, mutating forms that render him incapable of breaking free. Like a junkie gripped by addiction, he vainly holds out a Cross, but its light is too weak to unsnare him.
Head of Lincoln2004Oil on canvas36 × 48"Germinating ever since Lincoln seized Newley's imagination as a boy, this monumental study was brought to fruition by a chance encounter with Leonard Volk's great portrait bust of the young Lincoln. Now the central attraction at The Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln, Illinois.
Christopher Reeve2004Oil on canvas48 × 72"Famous as Superman, Reeve became a tireless campaigner for the rights of disabled people after a tragic riding accident left him paralysed from the neck down. Part of Newley's celebrated triptych now in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery at The Smithsonian.
Self-Portrait with Hairy Beast2004Oil on canvas44 × 60"The inner child reimagined as a recalcitrant monster — the truth of the child's shadow. Caliban is under the artist's spell, even though he manages a significant sneer at the audience.
William Goldman2004Oil on linen 21 × 28"Painted in Goldman's Library of Congress-style penthouse at New York's Carlyle Hotel, this portrait shows the legendary screenwriter hunched in close-up, looking straight at the artist with penetrating intelligence.
Lust2003 Oil on canvas18 × 24" Part of Newley's Seven Deadly Sins series, this charged oil on canvas explores the hidden forces of desire and the subconscious — a meditation on human longing and the pull of the senses.
Cardplayers2003 Oil on canvas35 × 54" The composition is designed to revolve attention around the table like a whirlpool, sucking us into the company of this ribald crew. Newley's figures act with their bodies as well as faces — theatricalising their emotions with their whole being.
Self-Portrait in Kangol Cap2002Oil on canvas16 × 26"Painted just before leaving his Harlem studio, with extreme toplight casting the eyes in shadow. The picture sums up the impact of 9/11 and everything the artist was going through at the time.
John Barry2002Oil on linen24 × 36"Painted in the study of his Long Island home, where five Oscars shared wall space with portraits of his heroes — Sibelius, Beethoven, and Vaughan Williams. The film composer who gave Goldfinger its golden menace spoke of his credo: "Make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, and thrill 'em." In the painting, his poised awareness dissolves the world around him, and silence waits for the touch of melody.
Painter’s Table 2001Oil on linen16 × 20"A fetishistic meditation on the artist's instruments — the blood, sweat and tears of painting made physical. For Newley, these tools carry magic, and the spirit of toil that informs them, a kind of virtue.
Braintree2001Oil on canvas36 × 52"Another 'postcard' from the artist's inner journey, in which a tree blitzed by light recalls a cerebellum perched on its brainstem — a harsh, mental and clinically exposing light that puts dawn on hold.
Girl in a Red Chair2001Oil on linenOwes a deep debt to Lucian Freud. The master himself, after seeing the painting reproduced in a magazine, confided to a friend: 'I was very attracted to the Girl in a Red Chair...'
Brooklyn Bridge2001Oil on linen16 × 24"Painted from the famous vantage point with the soaring World Trade Centre in the background — created just weeks before the unspeakable events of 11 September 2001.
Dawn, Manhattan Island 2001Oil on Canvas18 × 27"A rhapsodic anthem to the ideal city, charged with the seductive energy of New York before 9/11. The Big Apple's powers convinced Newley that fortune lay here — the city an accelerator of dreams and potencies.
Self-Portrait with Feet on the Ground2001Acrylic on Canvas24 × 48"Shows the artist in his Harlem studio working through the challenge of self-portraiture — the starting point of a series taking the studio and the nude as their subject.
St. George and the Dragon - Mastery2000Oil on linen48 × 60"In Newley's reworking of the classic myth, the dragon is much bigger than man and horse — a reversal acknowledging the true scale of the inner battle. The fearless rider does not simply slay; he grapples for survival.
Ascension of Christ1999 Oil and acrylic on canvas36 × 72" One of Newley's most ambitious and spiritually charged works, this monumental oil and acrylic on canvas renders the Ascension with a visionary intensity that bridges the sacred and the contemporary.
Man Meditating1999 Oil and acrylic on canvas40 × 50" Shows the absolute centredness of enlightenment: energy courses up through the body and fans out to reveal the nervous system and astral web, knitting together self and other, form and space.
Scrooge1999 Pastel on Paper16 × 20" A pastel study evoking Scrooge's wintry character through the textured fractal richness of pastel over rough paper — one of several Scrooge studies exploring Newley's lifelong fascination with Dickens's great miser.
Fresh1998Acrylic on canvas32 × 42"Pure, serpentine energy suggestive of interweaving jets of water, made in a state of happy creative flow. Paired with the companion piece Smitten, whose nervous brocade was made by etching into wet paint with a trowel.
Anthony Newley as Ebenezer Scrooge1998Oil on linen48 × 72"Painted at the Lyric Theatre in London, where Newley's father struck wonderful poses in full costume before curtain-up. Sawdust and sand were mixed into the underpainting to mimic the crusty temperament of Scrooge.
Billy Wilder1998Oil on linen20 × 26"Painted after a chance party meeting in London where Wilder and Newley debated the art of placing the camera in a scene. One of the first Hollywood legends to sit for the artist, opening a celebrated series of Hollywood portraits.
Self-Portrait on Broken Mirror1998Oil on broken mirror glass, mounted14 × 20"An arresting self-portrait executed on broken mirror glass and mounted — the fractured surface a metaphor for the divided self and the unreliable nature of self-perception.
Seeker1998Oil on canvas30 × 40"He witnesses the yawning chasm in himself between what he is and what he wants to be. Perhaps a crime has been committed and he seeks the courage to testify — or is he simply a pilgrim on the eternal road?
Smitten1998Acrylic on canvas30 × 40"The companion piece to Fresh, with a nervous brocade made by etching into wet paint with a trowel. The title references the moment painting first seized the artist's imagination: 'Painting had found me, and I was smitten.'
Deeper1997 Oil and acrylic on canvas48 × 48" Deeper uses the discoveries Newley made with texture to suggest a sunken energy reactor or sacred source.
Tragedy and Comedy1997 Oil and acrylic on canvas30 × 40" The two faces of drama imagined as conjoined twins attached at the head — a single image containing the entire emotional range of theatre and of human experience.
Dominick Dunne1996 Oil on linen24 × 36" Painted during the O.J. Simpson trial which Dunne famously covered for Vanity Fair magazine. A portrait of fearless, penetrating reportage.
Autumn Sunrise1995 Oil on canvas36 × 54" Inspired by daily walks up to the Hollywood Reservoir, where the artist meditated and revitalised. The painting expresses the power of nature to reset our mood and refocus attention on what matters most.
Melting Sea1994 Oil on linen20 × 60" Part of the artist's inner landscape series, this painting takes the viewer into an arctic waste with only a distant horizon tinged with warmth and verdure — a meditation on remoteness, stillness and the promise of transformation.
Carnal Landscape1992Acrylic on linen36 × 48"Another 'postcard' from the artist's inner journey, in which the distant light is blocked by a globe-like edifice evocative of a microbe or space capsule — a subconscious world of forms hearkening to sexuality and desire.
Katy1989Acrylic on board18 × 24"When Newley came to paint his sister, he felt he was at the foot of a mountain in terms of naturalistic portrait technique — the learning curve was steep, and the painting took almost a year.
Early Seascape1988Acrylic on linen20 × 26"An early acrylic seascape that shows the first signs of the visceral energy and inner landscape sensibility that would come to define Newley's later work. A formative piece in the development of his personal visual language.
Self-Portrait At Twenty1986 Acrylic on board30 × 30" For his first self-portrait, Newley rigged two light sources — one from above, one below — to mimic the divine and demonic light, covering all studio windows with blankets to subsume the space in darkness for six months.
