What is a portrait supposed to tell? Is it possibly the monologue about the beauty of the sitter? The monologue, which is endlessly speaking about the psychological qualities captured by another person's aesthetic sensitivity, interpreted by the technical skills? Although it is a world-old genre, it is not very obvious what kind of beauty a beautiful portrait represents... Maybe this mystery is what is so fascinating about Dorian Grey's one. Of course I am surely not sure and that is surely not a thing to be sure about. However, after seeing the paintings collectively shown during BP Portrait awards on current display at National Portrait Gallery, I am assured that wonderful portrait requires a rare talent. If it is at least as rare as generation, it gives us hope that the reality of the turn of the century statistically could have given birth to the one capable of mirroring its wonders with penetrating charm, which we are used to call-'a talent'. Obviously some of the paintings on display are interesting; however somehow, by being a part of this over-hipper- real group, even the pretty ones loose the strength of their potential appeal. I suppose that that is why I did not find the exhibition very pleasurable, but what was good in it is that it stirred in myself a curiosity about this fascinating genre. However vague idea this may seem, I consider thinking about art in general terms as thinking about its greatest aspects. Portrait is the most wonderful type of painting which disallows to separate the beauty of human appearance with that of art- its (her) daughter. I believe that the act of painting a portrait allows a painter to secretly adore the face of the sitter, creating a romance between those two kind of beauties. Secondly, a portrait allows the sitter to look at oneself as a masterpiece. It finally acts as the sitter's second face, whose wrinkles or its glow tell the audience its own story. As it is very probable that the above is all simply a cluster of wrong judgements, I encourage every amateur of portraits (and all its relatives: the portraitists, the sitters, the audience) to see the exhibition and talk to us about what words the paintings spoke.