Oil on canvas. Royal Collection. And even in museums today, some which are dedicated to portraits like the National Portrait Gallery in London? Why are portraits important? Within European art history, portraits are one of the genres within the hierarchy of genres , and elsewhere, portraits have more or less always existed as representations of people from real life.
Museo del Prado. Francisco Goya was first court painter, the highest position available for Spanish painters at the time. Official court painters were paid to regularly create paintings, usually portraits, for the royal family, often with a fixed salary. Art practice as we often understand it today—that is, artists making art based on what they are inspired by or what they want to explore—is a pretty new concept. For much of history, artworks were mostly produced based on commissions.
This, of course, varies depending on time periods and cultures, but this was definitely the case in the European tradition, from which the formalised portraiture genre sprang. It makes sense why portraits would be such a popular subject for patrons to commission. Similar to how we have family photos on our walls today, having portraits of you and your family was a way of representing and immortalising yourself before photography was invented.
Oil on panel. In the above example by Albrecht Altdorfer c. Initially, mostly wealthy and powerful patrons would commission these portraits, but over time, it became more and more common for middle-class people to commission portraits as well.
Together with landscapes, portraiture is probably the most used artistic genre in art in general. There are so many reasons for that, and all of them could be described by the powerful magic of portraiture. However, contemporary portraiture is facing some accusations saying it does not belong in contemporary art not because of the artists of course, but because of the main characteristics of this genre. Particularly it is about painting portraits that are being targeted by some art experts; however, the portraiture, thanks to its magic, manages to survive in a tough competition of contemporary art scene.
Portraiture is the recording of an individual's appearance and personality, whether in a photograph, painting, sculpture, or any other medium. What makes it so magical is its ability to depict not only the physical but also psychological characteristics of a figure.
There is something satisfactory in that process of observation maybe even masturbatory — of course in the symbolic sense of this word, but sometimes literally, if someone likes erotic portraiture that is also a form of art. Still another sees the clashes between proletariat and bourgeois power, between unions and government, and between men and women, as the defining characteristics of early 20th century life.
Comparing paintings and photographs of famous figures of the 20th century - whether Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher - we are not surprised that the photograph might in some instances convey rather better the character and power of the subject against the equivalent painted portrait. But my proposition here is not that photography has displaced painted portraiture, but that it has changed the encounter between subject and artist, and altered part of the context in which painted portraits are created.
Thirdly I would then ask what other forms of portraiture have become effective in the contemporary world? Photography has affected the whole arena of portraiture: the character and the context. It has also developed and spawned new media, digital photographs and video images being one arena. There are new digital opportunities and the commissioned portrait of David Beckham by Sam Taylor-Wood is the perfect example of a new kind of portrait. So why do painted portraits still matter today?
Do we now have a greater or different public for portraiture? Are the characteristics of authority and authenticity still relevant or true? The fast changing landscape of surveillance and the globalisation of digital imagery calls for the counterpoint of intense, 'local' imagery contained within a painting. The possibilities of allegory and complex meaning are distinct: the symbolic realm can come to the fore. The conveying of character in a painted portrait is specific and dynamic.
There is a process described through paint - an intensity to the relationship between artist and sitter - which produces a different character from the medium of photography. And it is this intensity, often freed from the conventions of previous periods which, gives a great portrait its authority.
They are in love, at work, and playing. Viewers can imagine the world of the subjects. They can get lost in worlds in which they are familiar, like a beauty parlor or living room. Or they can enter into a world where they have never been. Whatever the viewer does with the narrative painting, they can imagine. Narrative paintings allow the viewer to feel a sense of compassion, respect, or understanding for the characters in the narrative.
Keeping the Culture by Kerry James Marshall — www. A very popular example of narrative paintings would be the jazz scene paintings. There was a time there was a thriving jazz scene.
What are we leaving behind as a reminder of our contemporary time? But are artists really thinking about our times and reflecting that in the work? Alfred Conteh is a great painter. His portraits are masterful. The detail when viewing them up close is amazing. And the concept behind the Two Front series is relevant.
But he has done other things as excellently. His sculpture is deceptively beautiful. There is such demand for his portraits, and rightfully so, but his narrative paintings are quite beautiful, as well. They tell stories of contemporary times. And when we look back at this moment in time, we have the narratives he created to represent what many of us are experiencing.
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