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The Portrait in America
The portrait's persistent significance in the history of American art
dates to the nation's early years, particularly during the Colonial
and Federal periods when it was the dominant form of art in the nascent
country. As American art evolved over time, embracing traditional forms
of
representation (and genres, including landscape, still life, and
history)
and then rejecting them in favor of abstraction, the portrait continued
to
develop as well, absorbing changing trends and styles. In recent years,
many portraits have become evident as such in title alone, as artists
challenge the conventions of portraiture in the strictest sense -- as
the figurative representation of a recognizable individual.
Drawing on the UAMA permanent collections, The Portrait in
America
considers the surprisingly varied approaches to portraiture undertaken
by
artists in America. Rather than trace the genre's development solely
along
chronological lines, however, this exhibition
presents small groupings of very different kinds of portrayals -- the
commissioned portrait, the self-portrait, the iconic portrait, and
the conceptual portrait, for example -- rendered through a tremendous
range of styles. In addition, the groupings examine works that
emphasize particular aspects of their
subjects -- physiological, psychological, political, and/or social -- to
unexpected effect. These organizational choices are intended to
complicate the standard definition of the portrait, to understand it as
a
more tenuous and more complex form of representation than commonly
thought, and to thereby reflect more deeply on the ways we choose to
view
ourselves.
Curated by Susannah Maurer, Assistant Curator
Visit our Exhibition History page for information
on past exhibitions at UAMA.
UAMA: (520) 621-7567
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