ABBOT Hall Art Gallery's latest exhibition opens tomorrow (Friday) with works by 29 artists in the frame.

Face Value: Portraiture from the Arts Council Collection, runs until June 13, an exhibition that deconstructs portraiture, examining the basic principles and how these have been used time and time again to produce engaging portraits of people, places and times.

Down the centuries portraitists have captured the great, the good, and the not so good, lovers and loved ones, friends, even the artist themselves.

In fact, the Kendal exhibition begins by exploring the artist’s self-portrait and asks why an artist would paint themselves. What are they trying to show? Is self-portraiture about narcissism and self-indulgence? Is it about practicing a technique?

As far as contemporary portraiture is concerned what exhibition wouldn't feature the iconic selfie of Mark Gertler?

The dynamic between artist and sitter is intriguingly documented in Bruce Bernard’s photographs of Lucian Freud and his famous sitter, Sue Tilley. In this situation the artist has a close intimacy with the subject as voyeur and author of the immortalised image while simultaneously objectifying the sitter, reducing her to lines, shapes and colours. Many works in the show illustrate how a once personal relationship of artist to subject can be generalised to represent the artists view of a type of person. This is particularly evident in Vanessa Bell’s The Cook, Bernard Meninsky’s Portrait of a Girl and William Patrick Roberts’ A Gipsy Girl.

The exhibition also explores the notion that many artists have created portraits that are not of people, or not just of people, but can be portraits of popular culture, places and political opinion. The eye-catching and unforgettable work by Chris Ofili entitled Popcorn Shells, will rest against the walls of Abbot Hall propped up by elephant dung in the North Gallery. Ofili’s intriguing work features the faces of famous jazz musicians he admired.

Face Value presents portraiture in a variety of medium, including painting, collage, bronze and new media. Sitting peacefully against a wall in the gallery will be the hyper realistic, wax-created sculpture by Siobhan Hapaska, Saint Christopher. Although initially rather unsettling, the saintly figure rests in a calm, contemplative manner.

The final section of the Abbot Hall show pushing at the boundaries of what portraiture can be used for. While both Sarah Lucas’ and Tracey Emin’s pieces are self-portraits they are also boldly challenging gender and sexuality through a re-examination of their own bodies.

Meanwhile, Abbot Hall has received two drawings from Lucian Freud’s treasured collection of paintings and drawings by his friend Frank Auerbach is to be distributed to galleries across the UK in lieu of around £16m in inheritance tax. The 40 works were offered to the nation after Freud’s death in 2011, representing the largest ever single agreement under the acceptance in lieu (AIL) scheme, administered by Arts Council England.