portrait history : materials web 2013

What is a Portrait?Why do we make images of ourselves and others?

por•trait |ˈpôrtrət; -ˌtrāt|noun


1. a work of art that represents a specific person.



portraits usually show what a person looks like as well as revealing something about the subject’s personality.



portraits usually show what a person looks like as well as revealing something about the subject’s personality.

portraits can be made of any sculptural material or in any two-dimensional medium.

Rhinoceros, man, and bison. Lascaux, France, ca. 15,000-13,000 B.C.E.

Rhinoceros, man, and bison. Pech Merle Cave, France, ca. 23,000 B.C.E.

Handprint, Chauvet Cave, Franceca. 30,000-28,000 B.C.E.

M.C. Escher (Dutch)Hand with Reflecting Sphere, 1935

Gabriel Orozco (Mexican)My Hands are My Heart, 1991

Falcon Reliquary (Egyptian)ca. 600-350 B.C.E.

Damien Hirst (German)

Damien Hirst (German)For the Love of God, 2007 A.D.


a platinum cast of a real human skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds



cost 14 million pounds to make, allegedly sold for 50 million pounds - this would make it the most expensive work of art ever sold



cost 14 million pounds to make, allegedly sold for 50 million pounds - this would make it the most expensive work of art ever sold

teeth are real human teeth

Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch)Self Portraits, 1889

Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch)

Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch) Paul Gauguin (French)

Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch)Starry Night, 1889

AND IT

WAS ALL

YELLOW

Albrecht Durer (German)

Self-Portrait at 22, 1493

Noah Kalina (American)Noah K. Everyday 2000-Present

Cindy Sherman (American)Self Portraits, 2012 & 1981

Bayeté Ross Smith (American)Our Kind of People, 2010

The “Our Kind Of People” series examines how clothing, ethnicity and gender affect our ideas about identity, personality and character.

The subjects in this work are dressed in clothing from their own wardrobes. The outfits are worn in a style and fashion similar to how that person would wear them in daily life.

I have kept the lighting and facial expressions the same in each photograph, changing only the clothing and race. Devoid of any context for assessing the personality of the individual in the photograph, the viewer projects her or his own cultural biases on each photograph.

Bayeté Ross Smith (American)Our Kind of People, 2010

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian)ca. 1512

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian)Mona Lisa, ca. 1503-1506

Salvador Dalí (Spanish)The Persistence of Memory, 1931

I DON’T

DODRUGS.

I DON’T

DODRUGS.

AM DRUGS.I

Salvador Dalí (Spanish)The Persistence of Memory, 1931

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian)Mona Lisa, ca. 1503-1506

Salvador Dalí (Spanish)Self Portrait as Mona Lisa, 1954

Frida Kahlo (Mexican)Two Fridas, 1939

Frida Kahlo (Mexican)The Little Deer, 1946

Ron Mueck (American)Mask II, 2001

Ron Mueck (American)Crouching Boy in Mirror, 1999-2000

portrait history : materials web 2013

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