Portraiture 1: Others, Mostly Painting

September 23 – October 31, 2021

Image credits:

Top row, left: Colleen Kiely, Jordan, Oil, acrylic, and graphite on wood panel, 48×36”, 2020.
Top row, right: Catherine Kehoe, Anna, Oil on panel, 6×6”, 2006.
Middle row, left: Laura Chasman, Catherine, Gouache on paper, 12×11”, 2007.
Middle row, right: Daphne Confar, Margaret of the Dunes, Oil on panel with gold leaf edge, 6×6”, 2021.
Bottom row, left: Susan White Brown, Figure #11, Oil on canvas, 60×36”, 2018.
Bottom row, right: Keith Morris Washington, The Secret Life of Mister Vacuum Lungz, Oil on linen, 84×48”,  2018.

Portraiture 1: Others, Mostly Painting
September 23 – October 31, 2021

Opening Gathering:
Thursday, September 30, 5:30pm
Artist and Curator Talk

What is a portrait? Is it a construction?
How do we see each other? How do we see ourselves?
Who is looking at who?
How does the camera in its various forms influence perception?
How has this changed with social media?

The role of the artist is to point to things. When depicting someone the artist makes decisions about what story to tell. Portraits not only articulate something about the subject, but also how that subject wants to be depicted and how the artist wants to depict them. In addition, the viewer is invited to add to that conversation through projection, that is, the experience of the work also becomes about one’s identity. The work of this group of artists in Portraiture 1: Others, Mostly Painting gives us clues to who we are.

Participating Artists:

Colleen Kiely

Keith Morris Washington

Susan White Brown

Daphne Confar

Laura Chasman       

Catherine Kehoe 

We have created additional ways of experiencing the exhibit. We are excited to share this with you. Please visit the virtual tour and related links.

Suffolk University Gallery COVID-19 Visitor Policy

Suffolk University is a community that places great emphasis on welcoming and engaging visitors and guests. In response to COVID-19, however, we have had to make adjustments to protect the health and safety of our community, our visitors, and the broader public.

Visitors and guests may visit the Suffolk University campus including the Suffolk University Gallery. Upon arrival, visitors must complete a health screening form at the security desk of the Sawyer building and follow campus protocols regarding COVID-19 such as face coverings.

The form should be completed on the day of the visit.  An approval will be sent to your email if you are cleared to access the campus. Please either display this screen or a printed copy of your approval to Security.

Related Links:

Among the many well-known portraits are those of Frida Kahlo, John Singer Sargent, Dominique Ingres, Rembrandt, Goya, Velasquez. Contemporary examples include Alice Neel, Lucian Freud, Gerhard Richter, Kerry James Marshall, Kehinde Wilde, Amy Sherold, Elizabeth Peyton.

https://www.thecollector.com/portraiture-artists-21st-century-painting/

http://www.howtotalkaboutarthistory.com/reader-questions/portraits-important-art-history/

Some well known portrait painters from the past:

John Singer Sargent painter
https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/john-singer-sargent

Rembrandt painter

A portrait is typically understood to be a faithful reproduction of a person’s likeness. Rembrandt complicated the genre, constructing identities through props, lighting, and ambiguous settings—leaving us to ask, “What is a portrait?”
https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9244/rembrandt-portraits

Ingres
https://www.frick.org/interact/miniseries/cocktails_curator/ingres_comtesse_dhaussonville

Frida Kahlo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo

Alice Neel was an American visual artist, known for her portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers. Her paintings have an expressionistic use of line and color, psychological acumen, and emotional intensity.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2021/alice-neel

The Obama Portraits
https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9507/the-obama-portraits

Amy Sherold painter
http://www.amysherald.com/2f7gr8cyy07h6smy75ipuo385zk8sv

Kehinde Wiley painter

Los Angeles native and New York based visual artist, Kehinde Wiley has firmly situated himself within art history’s portrait painting tradition. As a contemporary descendent of a long line of portraitists, including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, among others, Wiley, engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world.
https://kehindewiley.com

https://www.vmfa.museum/learn-archive/activities/artist-talk-kehinde-wiley/

Kerry James Marshall painter
https://www.moca.org/exhibition/kerry-james-marshall-mastry

Jordan Casteel painter
https://art21.org/watch/new-york-close-up/jordan-casteel-stays-in-the-moment/

https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/jordan-casteel-1470976

Kathy Gramman photographs

“The circumstances of making my photographs are, in a way, almost more important than the pictures themselves.”
https://art21.org/artist/katy-grannan/

Oliver Wasow’s photographs have a strong relationship to painting, harking back to early photographic portraits which themselves were imitating paintings.
https://www.oliverwasow.com/series/134/224/series_works/list

Nan Goldin https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/nan-goldin-2649/nan-goldin-work-comes-empathy-and-love