David Beckham unveils sleeping video portrait on display in hospital where he was born

1/5
Robert Dex @RobDexES6 December 2019

David Beckham has gone back to where it all began with the unveiling of a video portrait of him asleep — on display at the hospital where he was born.

The 107-minute film was made by artist Sam Taylor-Johnson and has been lent to Whipps Cross Hospital by the National Portrait Gallery.

Taylor-Johnson, who went on to direct Fifty Shades Of Grey, filmed Beckham in 2004 while he was enjoying a siesta after training with Real Madrid.

The film, called David, is being played on a loop on a 1.2-metre-wide screen in the east London hospital’s ultrasound department, until March. It is the first time the gallery has lent a work to a hospital as part of its Coming Home programme, which sends portraits of famous faces back to their home towns.

NPG director Dr Nicholas Cullinan said: “We could not be more delighted to lend David to Whipps Cross Hospital … We hope sending portraits ‘home’ in this way will foster a sense of pride and create a personal connection for local communities to a bigger national history … helping to fulfil our aim of being truly a national gallery for everyone, in our role as the nation’s family album.”

Beckham was born on May 2, 1975, and grew up down the road in Leytonstone. He played football for junior teams in nearby Chingford before signing for Manchester United as a schoolboy. He played more than 100 times for England and won titles in England, Spain, the US and France, where he ended his career at Paris Saint-Germain.

The film, last seen at the gallery in 2017, was partly inspired by Andy Warhol whose film Sleep consisted of more than five hours of his lover John Giorno sleeping.

Catsou Roberts of Vital Arts, which works in Barts Health NHS Trust, said she welcomed the work by “one of Britain’s most significant artists of her generation”.

David Beckham GQ Man of The Year

1/4

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in